How to Train Your Boyfriend
by zukofan2005
Summary: Katara wanted to make something of herself. Because of the gender roles in her village she couldn't be a warrior. But her life starts changing for the better when she knocks a powerful rare dragon out of the air and learns it's greatest secret. ZUTARA
1. Chapter 1

I am so obsessed with How to Train Your Dragon! :D It's my favorite movie made by Dreamworks. I am so glad I thought of this because again, I love the movie and I am a big fan of Zutara! I hope you enjoy this

disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD nor do I own ATLA

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><p>On an island just between the south pole and the Earth Kingdom was a small village. Surrounding the village were cliffs and trees and surrounding the island was an ocean that went on as far as the eye could see. There were no other islands to be seen from that little island.<p>

_This, is my village. It's twelve days North of nothing, and a few degrees South of freezing. It's located solidly on the meridian of misery._ _My village is, in a word, sturdy. And it's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, bending, and a beautiful view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitos. We have..._

A koala sheep that was grazing peacefully on a hillside was suddenly snatched up by something large and menacing looking.

_...Dragons._

Hearing the roars of the dragons and the men of her village yelling out orders or yelling out battle cries, Katara grabbed her waterskin and ran out of her house. She weaved through the mayhem as men poured out of the buildings, ready for a fight. More dragons swarmed in, setting rooftops alight and hauling off more livestock.

_Most people would leave. Not us. We're warriors and benders. We have stubbornness issues._ _My name's Katara. I know, not really intimidating. But it's not the worst. Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off their enemies. Like our charming demeanor wouldn't do that._

The dragons swept back and forth, dodging weapons and blasting the warriors who threw them. A burly warrior got tossed in an explosion, knocking Katara to the ground. The warrior yelled in her face before looking insanely cheerful.

"Mornin'!"

Katara got to her feet and continued to rush past the warriors all of whom were telling her to get back inside. She ignored them. Tonight was the night; she was finally going to fight a dragon! She saw the perfect dragon to fight and opened her waterskin when she suddenly felt herself get yanked backward by the collar of her robe. She didn't even need to look behind her to know who it was. She groaned in annoyance.

"Katara!" Hakoda looked to some men nearby accusingly, "What is she doing out again?" He turned his attention back to Katara who looked back up at him, not even trying to hide her annoyance. "What are you doing out? Get inside!" He pushed her in the direction of the armory and looked to the sky.

_That's Hakoda. He's the chief of our village. They say that when he was a baby he took down a dragon with only a knife. Do I believe it? Yes I do._

Hakoda went to his men and asked, "What have we got?"

"Dart Thrower, Tongue Lasher, Wind Arrow, Terra Club." one of the men answered immediately, "Oh, and Tyro saw a Royal Inferno."

"Any Comet Eyes?"

"None so far."

"Good."

Katara ran across an open plaza and ducked into an open building with a tall chimney. She crossed behind a counter, where a tall man with a burn scar on his arm stood, reshaping blades with a hammer and tongs appendage.

"There you are Katara!" said the man

Katara put on her leather apron. "Is Sokka here yet?"

"No, I'm afraid he's not." As soon as he said this a teenaged boy with a Warrior's Wolf Tail ponytail and wearing Water Tribe clothes rushed in the room. His blue eyes were similar to Katara's.

"Ah! There you are Sokka. We were worried you'd been carried off."

Sokka put on a leather apron similar to Katara's and started to put away the man's scattered appendages.

"Who me?" he questioned cockily. "Nah, come on! I'm way too muscular for their taste. They wouldn't know what to do with all this." He struck a pose, flexing his skinny arms.

"They need toothpicks, don't they?" Katara asked with a smirk.

_This is Bato. He's a long time friend of Hakoda and we've been his apprentices ever since we were little. Well...littler. _

"We move to the lower defenses." Hakoda told his men. "We'll counter-attack with the catapults."

Nearby, a dragon set a building completely on fire.

_See? Old village. Lots and lots of new houses._

Four teenaged boys rushed to the burning house carrying large buckets of water to douse the flames. Katara leaned out of the stall window to watch them.

_Oh and that's Jet, the siblings The Duke and Pipsqueak. And... Hahn. How that moron got to be part of the dragon fighting is just one huge mystery to me. Their job is so much cooler._

Katara tried to join them as they passed, but she was grabbed by Bato and pulled back inside.

"Ah, come on Bato. Let me out, please. I need to make my mark."

Bato chuckled. "Oh, you've made a lot of marks. All in the wrong places."

"Please, two minutes. I'll kill a dragon. My life will get so much better. I might even get asked out."

"You can't lift a hammer. You don't use weapons..." Bato picked up a bola and showed it to her. "... you can't even throw one of these."

A passing warrior grabbed it out of Bato's hand and hurled it at a dive-bombing Tongue Lasher. The bola binds its legs, sending it into a heavy crash.

"Okay fine, but..." Katara rushed to the back corner of the stall and presented a small catapult. "...this will throw it for me."

"Where'd you get that?" asked Sokka

"Teo made it for me." Katara opened the hinged lid of the device. An arm sprung up, equipped with twin bows. They prematurely launch a bola, narrowly missing Bato and Sokka and taking out a warrior at the counter. Bato sighed

"See, now this right here is what I'm talking about, Katara."

"If you ever want to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all..." Sokka gestured in Katara's general direction. "...this."

"But... you just pointed to all of me." Katara said, confused

"Yes! That's it! Stop being all of you."

"Ooohhhh... You're playing a pretty dangerous game! Keeping all this raw bending warrior energy contained. I swear there will be consequences!

Bato tossed her a sword. "We'll take our chances."

Katara took it begrudgingly and placed it onto the grinding wheel.

_One day I'll get out there. Because killing a dragon is everything around here. A Wind Arrow head is sure to get me at least noticed. Terra Clubs are tough. Taking down one of those would definitely get me asked out. A Tongue Lasher? Exotic, exciting. Dart Shooters are one of the major deadly ones, they can actually shoot sharp spikes out of their tails._

"They found the sheep!

"Concentrate fire over the lower bank!"

Boulders are catapulted at the Wind Arrows just as a huge red dragon whipped past, spraying the base of the catapult with blue fire.

_And then there's the Royal Inferno. Only the best warriors go after those. They breath blue fire and have this nasty habit of setting off lightning when given the chance._

It emerged from the flames, climbing the catapult with a leering, toothy grin.

"Reload!" Hakoda pulled out his club and glared at the dragon. "I'll take care of this." He is about to his it when a loud ballistic moaning streaks overhead. The catapult crew ducked. Katara looked up from her work, reacting to the same sound. She squinted her eyes as she searched for the source of the sound.

_But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one has ever seen. We call it the-_

"COMET EYE!"

"Get down!"

Warriors took shelter as the moaning sound builded. The Royal Inferno suddenly took flight. Hakoda looked skyward for the new dragon.

_This thing never steals food, never shows itself, and..._

"JUMP!"

The catapult exploded as though hit by an artillery shell sending Hakoda and the crew leaping for their lives.

_...never misses. No one has ever killed a Comet Eye. That's why I'm going to be the first._

Bato grabbed his weapons. "Man the fort, Katara, they need me and Sokka out there!"

Sokka paused at the door and turned with a threatening glare and a finger raised. "Stay. Put. There. You know what I mean." He charged into the fray after Bato, hollering.

A smirk crossed Katara's face. She grabbed the mini catapult and wheeled it out of the stall. She pushed through the chaos, once again ignoring the orders the warriors were giving her to get back inside.

The dragons corner a group of koala sheep. As they start to close in Hakoda jumped in, hurling fishnets over them. The surprised dragons have been caught. A dragon blasts a hole through its net but Hakoda clamps his arms around its head, forcing its jaws shut.

"Careful!" he warned the other warriors, "The devils still have some juice in them."

Katara reached a cliff overlooking the smoking catapult and dropped the handles to the ground. She prepared the machine and dropped a bola onto a chamber and then stood at the ready. She listened, her eyes searching the dark sky, hand poised on the trigger.

"Come on." she muttered to herself. "Give me something to shoot at, give me something to shoot at."

Then she heard it. The Comet Eye approached and turned her aim to the defense tower. It was closing in for the final strike, completely camouflaged in the night. The dragon opened its mouth and fired at it, making the tower to fall. The blast of fire illuminated the dragon for a moment but a moment was all Katara needed. She pulled the trigger and the bola was shot into the sky. The sound of it hitting the dragon and the dragon screeching made her smile in excitement.

"Yes! I hit it! Did anybody see that?" As soon as she said this a Dart Thrower slithered up the cliff, growling at her.

"Except for you."

Hakoda was holding down the captured dragons when he heard a scream. He looked up to see Katara running and screaming with a Dart Thrower right behind her. He ran toward her while yelling out to his men.

"DO NOT let them escape!"

The Dart Thrower spat fire at Katara. The flames barely missed her and hit buildings instead. She ducked behind a large pole and the dragon blasted it, spraying fire all around her. She peered around the smoldering post. Unknown to her, the dragon was leering at her on her left, blocking her escape. It takes a deep breath to breath fire at her again but then Hakoda jumped in between them, tackling the Dart Thrower to the ground. They tumbled to the ground and wrestled. The dragon tried to spit fire at him, but could only cough up smoke. Hakoda smirked.

"You're all out." He repeatedly hit the dragon in the face, and a net covered it, capturing it. He turned to look at Katara who was still standing behind the pole.

_Oh, and there's one more thing you need to know..._

The burnt pole collapsed, sending the massive iron basket sitting atop it crashing. It bounced down the hill, destroying things in its path and scattering the warriors who were holding down the netted dragons. The freed dragons escaped with several livestock in their claws.

Katara cringed at this. "Sorry...dad."

Hakoda watched the dragons leave with their catch before glaring at Katara who was looking very sheepish.

"Okay, but I hit a Comet Eye."

Not listening, Hakoda grabbed Katara by the arm and hauled her away.

"It's not like the last few times, Dad." she said, "I mean I really actually hit it. You guys were busy and I had a very clear shot. It went down, just off Sea Raven Point. Let's get a search party out there, before it-"

He stopped dragging his daughter and turned to face her. "STOP! Just...stop."

The villagers stared at the two, completely silent.

"Every time you step outside, disaster follows. Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter's almost here and I have an entire village to feed!"

Katara looked around at the villagers. All eyes were on her. She looked back up at her dad.

"I'm really sorry Dad."

"Why can't you follow the simplest orders?" he asked, exasperated.

"I can't stop myself." she said, "I see danger and I have to just... fight, you know? It's who I am, Dad."

"You are many things, Katara. But a warrior is not one of them."

This stung Katara. She looked around to see many nods of agreement coming from the villagers.

"Get back to the house." Hakoda looked at Bato who stood with Sokka. "Make sure she gets there. I have her mess to clean up."

Bato and Sokka led the sad and embarrased Katara toward home. They passed the teen fire brigade. Hahn snickered.

"Quite the performance." he said to Katara who could only glare.

The three headed up toward a large house which stood prominently on the hill above the others.

"I really did hit one." Katara told Bato and Sokka

Sokka rolled his eyes and nodded. "Sure, Katara."

"He never listens."

"Well, it runs in the family." said Bato

"And when he does, it's always with this... disappointed scowl. Like someone skipped the meat in his meal." She then started to imitate Hakoda. "Excuse me, waitress. I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra large boy with beefy arms. Extra guts and glory on the side. This here. This is a talking fish bone."

Sokka looked annoyed. "Hey I'm his kid too!"

"You're point?"

"Katara, you're thinking about this all wrong." said Bato. "It's not so much what you look like. It's what's inside that he can't stand."

Katara stared at him in disbelief. "Thank you, for summing that up."

"Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not."

The waterbender sighed heavily.

"I just want to be one of you guys." she said before entering the house.

Bato and Sokka watched her go inside with sympathy and turned to go. Unknown to them, Katara had ran straight out the back door and was running off into the woods looking determined.

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><p>Well? Like? Don't Like? Hate it beyong all reason? LET ME KNOW IN YOUR REVIEW!<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

I can't believe I actually finished the second chapter already! Why can't I update this fast with my other stories?

disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD nor do I own ATLA

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><p>"Either we finish them or they'll finish us!"<p>

All the adults of the village were having a village meeting concerning the dragon raids. They stood around a large round table where a map lay in the middle of it; it was the map to the dragons nest. Hakoda was addressing all the villagers.

"It's the only way we'll be rid of them! If we find the nest and destroy it, the dragons will leave. They'll find another home."

Hakoda pulled out his knife and stabbed the dragon on the map.

"One more search. Before the ice sets in."

"Those ships never come back." said Tyro. His son Haru stood next to him.

"We're warriors." Hakoda said in a matter-of-fact tone. "It's an occupational hazard. Now who's with me?"

He threw up his fist and looked around at the men. None of them had raised their fists. Instead they averted their eyes and were mumbling excuses. Hakoda rolled his eyes.

"Alright. Those who stay will look after Katara."

Just as he expected all the men immediately threw their fists in the air

"That's more like it." he muttered.

Now that the meeting had ended the villagers rushed out of the room, leaving Hakoda and Bato alone.

"Bato, I will need you to stay and train some new recruits."

Bato drank from his cup. "Oh, perfect. And while I'm busy, Sokka and Katara can cover the stall. Molten steel, razor sharp blades, lots of time to themselves...what could possibly go wrong?"

"Sokka's one of the new recruits."

"What about Katara?"

Hakoda looked at Bato as if it was obvious. Bato laughed a little

"Come on Hakoda, Katara is a waterbending master. I bet she'll have as much a chance taking down a dragon as any boy. Put her in training with the others, I know she'll be okay."

Hakoda glared at his old friend. "She'd be killed before you let the first dragon out of its cage."

Bato rolled his eyes. "Oh, you don't know that."

"I do know that, actually."

"No, you don't."

"No, actually I do."

"No you don't!"

"Listen! You know what she's like. From the time she could crawl she's been..." Hakoda paused, searching for the right word to describe his daughter, "Different. She doesn't listen. Has the attention span of a sparrowkeet. I take her fishing and she goes hunting for... for Unagis."

"Unagis exist!" Bato said defensively. "They steal your socks. But only the left ones. What's with that?"

Hakoda stood up and walked around the table.

"When I was a boy..."

"Oh here we go." Bato grumbled. Hakoda ignored him.

"My father told me to bang my head against a rock and I did it. I thought it was crazy, but I didn't question him. And you know what happened?"

"You got a headache." Bato answered sarcastically. He had heard this story too many times to count. Again, Hakoda ignored him.

"That rock split in two. It taught me what a warrior could do, Bato. He could crush mountains, level forests, tame seas! Even as a boy, I knew what I was, what I had to become. Katara is not that kind of girl."

"You can't stop her, Hakoda. You can only prepare her." When Hakoda still looked unconvinced, Bato continued. "Look, I know it seems hopeless. But the truth is you won't always be around to protect her. She's going to get out there again. She's probably out there now."

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><p>Katara groaned.<p>

"The spirits must hate me!"

She had been searching the forest all morning but she couldn't find any sign of the stupid dragon.

"Some people lose their knife or their earrings. No, not me. I manage to lose an entire dragon." Out of frustration, she hit a low-hanging branch. It snapped back at her, hitting her in the face. Rubbing the part on her face where the branch had hit her, she looked up to see a snapped tree trunk. Her eyes followed it to a long trench of disturbed earth. Intrigued, she followed the damage, her eyes darting warily. At last she had found it; a dark red dragon with a large purple comet shaped mark over its left eyes. Its body and tail were tangled in the bola she had shot it down with. It wasn't moving. Katara approached the beast with caution. When it still didn't move, she beamed with excitement.

"I did it." she muttered before saying it again loudly, "I did it! This fixes everything. Yes!" She jumped up in excitement. She planted her foot on the downed Comet Eye. "I have brought down this mighty beast!"

The mighty beast suddenly shifted, causing her to jump back. She pulled out her blade and her eyes trailed along the weak dragon's body from the tail to it's face. As her eyes reached the head, she saw that the Comet Eye dragon was staring coldly up at her. Katara tried to look away, but she was drawn to its stare. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, and raised her dagger.

"I'm going to kill you, Dragon." she said to it softly. "I'm gonna cut out your heart and take it to my father. I'm a warrior. I am a WARRIOR!" she yelled out the last word.

She raised her dagger a little higher, readying herself. The dragon's labored breathing broke her concentration and she looked at it. She looked into its gold eyes and was surprised to see fear in them. They stared into each others eyes for a short moment before the closed its eyes and lowers its head as if resigned to its fate. Katara closed her eyes, her dagger still raised. She kept telling herself to do it but she just couldn't. Now that she saw how scared the creature was she just couldn't bring herself to kill it. With a frustrated sigh, she lowered the dagger. She looked over the dragon's bound body and was ashamed to see that it's scaled had gotten chaffed from the rope.

"I did this." she muttered, ashamed. She turned to leave but then glanced back at the dragon; it hadn't opened its eyes, still waiting to die. Katara looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was around before running back to the dragon. Using her dagger and still making sure no one was around, she sawed through the bola ropes. As soon as she cut the last rope she suddenly found herself pinned to the ground by the Comet Eye dragon. Katara was paralyzed with fear as she stared into the dragon's eyes. It glared back. The dragon drew in a deep breath and Katara flinched, thinking it was going to kill her. Instead of fire, the dragon let out an ear-piercing scream that nearly deafened her. It turned and took flight, leaving Katara still on the ground. The dragon hit against a nearby mountain side, quickly recovered, and continued flying out of sight.

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><p>I know I'm making Katara seem really OOC in this fic but don't worry, she's gonna be the Katara we all know and love soon enough<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

*relieved sigh* FINALLY! I don't get why this took so frigging long to write! I mean I had the chapter all written out in script form! Oh yeah that's right...I'm lazy :P

disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD or ATLA

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><p>It was evening before Katara finally returned home. It took her a little longer for her to get home than it usually would. On her way out of the forest she had to keep looking over her shoulder with her water pouch open in case the dragon came back. Any sound, a twig breaking, the wind, a bird fluttering from one tree to another, would make Katara stop and bend the water out of her pouch and at the direction she heard the sound then she would bend the water back into her pouch when she was sure that there was nothing there. This would happen repeatedly every few minutes before she finally made it out of the forest and when she did she ran for home. Judging by the flickering light in the main room either Sokka or Hakoda had started a fire in the fireplace. Katara was hoping it wasn't her father since she wasn't even supposed to be out of the house that day because of what had happened the night before. She gently pushed open the door, praying to the spirits it wouldn't creak. When she entered the house, pushing the door shut gently behind her, she squinted her eyes and looked around the barely lit room until she saw someone standing in front of the fireplace with his back to her. It was Hakoda. He hadn't seemed to notice his daughter had come home, he was just staring intently at the fire.<p>

Daring not to make a sound, she tiptoed across the room toward the stairs. She put her foot on the first stair...

"Katara."

There was no anger in Hakoda's voice but Katara still flinched when she was caught. She stepped away from the stairs and went to him as he stood up.

"I have to talk to you, Dad." she told him

"I need to speak with you too, Katara." he said.

They both took a deep breath and spoke at the same time

"I've decided/I think it's time/I don't want to fight dragons/you learned to fight dragons. What?/What?"

"You first." said Katara.

"Alright. You get your wish."

Katara looked at him a little confused.

"Dragon training."

Her stomach dropped.

"You start in the morning."

Katara groaned and put a hand to her face to rub her eyes.

"Oh no, I should've gone first. Dad I don't think I-"

"You'll need this." Hakoda handed her his machete. It felt a little heavy in her hands, having never used weapons before in her life. "I know you're a Master Waterbender but one hit from a Tongue Lasher can not only paralyze you, sometimes it will take away your bending."

"I don't want to fight dragons."

He chuckled. "Come on. Yes, you do."

"Let me rephrase that...Dad I _can't_ kill dragons."

"But you will _kill_ dragons."

"No, I'm really very extra sure that I won't."

"It's time Katara."

"Can you not hear me?"

"This is serious Katara!"

Katara immediately shut her mouth at her father's hardened tone. He put his hand on her shoulder.

"When you carry this weapon... you carry all of us with you." he said gently. "Which means you walk like us. You talk like us. You think like us. No more of..." He gestured in Katara's general direction like Sokka had the night before. "This."

"You just gestured to all of me." she said, annoyed.

"Deal?"

"This conversation is feeling very one-sided."

"_DEAL?"_

Katara looked down at the machete in her hands. Knowing this was going to be a no-win argument, she said, looking resigned.

"Deal."

Hakoda pat her shoulder and went back to the fireplace to grab his club and duffel bag before heading for the door.

"Train hard." he said. "The warriors and I are going to try to find the nest again before the ice sets in."

Katara almost objected to that but said nothing, knowing it would be no use. Hakoda was almost obsessed with finding the nest ever since the death of his wife Kya.

Instead she said "Does Sokka know?"

"Yes. I already said goodbye to him before you got here. He's upstairs sleeping, you should be getting some rest too. You're going to need it tomorrow."

Hakoda and Katara hugged and he kissed her on the forehead. He pulled away and went to the door.

"I'll be back." he said before walking out the door and closing the door behind him.

"And I'll be here." Katara muttered, looking down at the machete. "Maybe."

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><p>"Welcome to dragon training!"<p>

Bato raised a massive iron gate, revealing a vast stone arena. The new recruits filed through the gate, and followed Bato out onto the arena floor.

"No turning back." Jet muttered, more to himself than the others.

Despite facing dragon raids all her life, seeing the walls covered in scorched silhouettes of blasted warriors made Katara feel queasy. If she couldn't kill any of the dragons in this arena, will that be her fate? Scattered along the floor were dozens of shields with different designs on them.

"I hope I get some serious burns." said Pipsqueak.

"I'm hoping for some mauling," said Hahn, "Like on my shoulder or lower back."

Sokka and Katara looked at each other and rolled their eyes. They knew getting burns or mauling scars was no joke. A few years back during a dragon raid Bato had gotten a major burn on his arm and part of his back that took weeks to heal and was now a large scar. At the time Katara, the only female waterbender, didn't know that waterbenders could heal so she coudln't make the healing process go quicker and more bearable for Bato.

"Yeah, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it." Sokka said sarcastically.

"Yeah, no kidding, right?" Katara said, also with sarcasm. "Pain. Love it."

The recruits turned to see Katara behind them. Hahn scoffed.

"Hey little girl, the cheerleading area is out there." He pointed to outside the arena.

Sokka clenched his fists. He had hated Hahn since the moment he set eyes on him.

"Actually Hahn, Katara's training with us."

"A girl in dragon training?" Hahn laughed. "She won't last two seconds."

Katara had to hold Sokka back so he wouldn't attack Hahn. Jet went to them.

"Don't listen to Hahn." he said. "He's so much of a moron it's a wonder how he's been able to survive the raids."

"Let's get started!" Bato called out to the recruits. "The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village."

"Katara already killed a Comet Eye," said Hahn, smirking at the waterbender. "So does that disqualify her or...?"

The besides Sokka and Katara, the others laughed with him. Bato lead the recruits to the other side of the arena where thee were five iron doors with large locks. Sokka threw a supportive arm around Katara's shoulders as they approached the doors.

"Don't worry." he said confidently. "You're small and weak. That'll make you less of a target. They'll see you as sick or insane and go after the more warrior-like teens instead."

Katara gave him a deadpanned look. "Gee thanks Sokka."

The siblings stood in line with the others and Bato walked toward five giant doors. Katara could hear terrible roars coming from the monsters on the other side of the doors.

"Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight." Bato explained. "The Wind Arrow..."

"Speed eight." The Duke, sitting on Pipsqueak's shoulders, muttered under his breath. "Armor sixteen."

"The Tongue Lasher..."

"Plus eleven stealth." Pipsqueak said quietly. "Times two."

"The Royal Inferno..."

"Firepower fifteen."

"The Dart Shooter..."

"Attack eight. Venom twelve."

"CAN YOU STOP THAT?" Hahn yelled at The Duke and Pipsqueak who glared at him along with Jet, Sokka, and Katara.

"And...the Terra Club."

"Jaw strength, eight." The Duke and Pipsqueak muttered to Sokka and Katara who stood next to them.

Bato pulled a lever, raising the cross beam on the last of the doors.

Sokka started freaking out. "Whoa, wait! Aren't you gonna teach us first?"

"I believe in learning on the job."

The cross beam was raised all the way...

BAM! The Terra Club burst from its cave, charging into the ring and roaring like mad. It charged towards the recruits and nearly ran into the wall when they moved out of the way. It scooped up some nearby large rocks in it's mouth and crunched them with its teeth. The recruits scrambled in every direction to avoid being in the dragon's line of target.

"Today is about survival." Bato called out. "If you get blasted, you're dead. Quick, what's the first thing you're going to need?"

"A doctor?" asked Sokka.

"Speed?" asked Pipsqueak.

"A shield." Katara quickly answered.

Bato nodded. "Shields. Go."

The recruits scrambled for the shields scattered all over the floor.

"Your most important piece of equipment is your shield. If you must make a choice between a sword or a shield, take the shield."

Katara ran to the nearest shield and made a grab for it but as soon as she picked it up Hahn grabbed it too.

"Get your hands off my shield!" he yelled

"There are like a million shields!" Katara retorted

"Take that one, it has a flower on it. Girls like flowers."

Katara used the shield to bash Hahn in the face and he lets go. She smirked.

"Ooops, now this one has blood on it."

The Terra Club took aim at Hahn who picked up a different shield at the last minute. As soon as the molten rock hit Hahn's shield he skid on the ground on his back.

"Hahn, you're out!"

The Terra Club scooped up another pile of rocks and ate them too. The teens gathered on the far side of the ring.

"Those shields are good for another thing. Noise. Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim."

Katara took out her dad's machete which was slung to her back, Sokka pulled out his boomerang, and Jet, Pipsqueak, and The Duke grabbed the weapons available in the arena and the teens began hammering on their shields. The Terra Club shook its head at the noise.

"All dragons have a limited number of shots." Bato explained. "How many does a Terra Club have?"

"Four!" Sokka called out

The Duke, who was sitting on Pipsqueak's shoulder, answered. "No, five!"

"Correct, five. That's one for each of you!"

Pipsqueak and The Duke's shield was suddenly blasted away.

"Pipsqueak, The Duke, out."

Katara was bouncing on her heels, ready to dodge a blast, her eyes never leaving the dragon. Jet approached her, smirking a little.

"So Katara, I got a place of my own." he told her. "You should come by sometime to work out. You look like you work out-"

The dragon turned its head at the two and before either teens knew it Jet was blasted onto his back.

"Jet! You're done!"

Katara rushed to Sokka and a fireball knocked Katara's shield clear off of her arm, leaving her exposed.

"One shot left!"

Katara chased after her shield as it rolled across the ring. The sudden movement caused the Terra Club to chase after her instead of Sokka. The dragon pounced and pinned her against the wall. Katara tried to free herself or waterbend at the dragon but she couldn't move her arms or reach her waterskin. The dragon opened its mouth and cocked its tail, ready to fire point-blank when Sokka lunged in and hooked the Terra Club's mouth at the last second with his boomerang, causing its head to jerk back and fire against the stone wall above Katara's head.

"And that's five!" Bato rushed over and wrestled the Terra Club back into its pen. Now that it was out of shots, it couldn't do more than snarl or snap at him. When the Terra Club was locked back in its cage, Bato turned to the recruits.

"Remember... a dragon will always..._always_ go for the kill."


	4. Chapter 4

I am so frigging sorry! I've been so busy, lazy, and tired lately I just couldn't work on any of my stories! *hits myself with a newspaper* BAD LLAMA! But finally here's an update and it's a nice long one too :) 4,181 words baby! Thanks to my betareader/co-author Zstar2010 for all your help! So enjoy and review please! :)

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><p><em>A dragon will always go for the kill...<em>

Those words echoed in Katara's mind as she bended down to pick up the remains of the bola that had caught and tied up the Comet Eye the other day.

"So why didn't you?..." she muttered.

She dropped the bola and ran off into the direction the dragon had flown off in. After a few minutes of running Katara started to notice that a few of the trees were missing some of their branches and whenever she passed a large boulder or cliff she would see some scratches. She eventually found herself at a rocky crevice. She walked around the crevice until she found a good sized crack she could crawl through easily. At the end of the mini tunnel she found herself in a huge cove that could fit half of her village inside of it. In the middle of it was a large pond. At the end of the cove opposite her was the edge of what could be a cliff. Her eyes scanned the entire cove for any kind of movement. She leaned out more to look and felt something under her fingers. She looked down and found a smooth dark red scale. She picked it up and inspected it closely when something large and dark flew past her. She jumped back and hid herself in the shadows, praying that the thing didn't see her.

The Comet Eye struggled to climb the walls, his wings flapping like crazy, before falling to the bottom of the cove. Katara scoot forward a little to get a better look. The leapt into the air, beating its wings furiously, flew to the top for a moment before suddenly rolling in the air and crashing to the ground. Slightly fascintated, Katara pulled out her leather-bound book, flipped to a blank page, and she sketched the dragon quickly. The Comet Eye clawed at the steep rock walls, trying climb out of the cove before slipping and falling again. After crashing onto the ground again the dragon slowly got to his feet and moved to the edge of the pond to drink some water. Spoting some fish, the dragon dunked its head into the water and snapped at them. He pulled his head back out and Katara could see that he came up empty. He lowered his head, looking dejected.

Katara finished her drawing and looked at the dragon. "Why don't you just...fly away?" she muttered. She looked back at her drawing and realized the problem and did some adjustments to her artwork...half of the dragon's tail fin was gone. She looked at the dragon, not noticing that she was loosening her grip on her pen until it fell out of her hand and rolled off of the rock outcropping that hid her from view and bounced into the cove, making a few high pitched TINK sounds. The Comet Eye raised his head and spotted Katara. The dragon glared but didn't snarl or bare its teeth. He just stared into her eyes and she did the same, neither of them backing down.

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><p>Using her waterbending, Katara was able to keep herself from getting drenched from the storm. The recruits and Bato were meeting at the chamber hall in the village for dinner. Katara opened one of the large doors with a large CREAK and all eyes turned to her. All the recruits smiled at her save for Hahn who glared.<p>

"There you are Katara." said Bato. "We were just going over our mistakes from today's training." He turned his attention to the recruits. "Where did Katara go wrong?"

Sokka waved his hand at Katara, gesturing her to sit with him at the table next to the other recruits.

"She showed up." said Hahn. Katara and Sokka glared at him.

"Where did Hahn go wrong?" Jet asked sarcastically. Without waiting for an answer he continued. "He didn't get eaten..."

Everyone save for Hahn and Bato (though the man did smile humorously) laughed.

"Thank you Jet." Bato picked up a large book and placed it at the center of the table Sokka and Katara were sitting at. On the front was a ferocious looking dragon. "You need to live and breathe this stuff." he said, pointing at the book. "The dragon manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of." He looked up as the rumble of thunder was heard. "No attacks tonight. Study up." Patting Katara and Sokka on their shoulders, he left the hall.

The recruits save for Katara and Sokka stared at the book in disbelief.

"Wait, you mean read?" asked Jet

"While we're still alive?" added Pipsqueak

"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" asked Hahn.

"I've read it like, seven times." said Sokka. "There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And there's this other one that buries itself for like a week..."

"Yeah, that sounds great." interrupted Hahn, obviously not caring or impressed. "There was a chance I was going to read that...but now?..." he trailed off, getting up. "You losers read, I'll go kill stuff."

Jet rolled his eyes at Hahn but got up to leave anyway, followed by the Duke and Pipsqueak, leaving Sokka and Katara at their table.

"So I guess we'll share-"

Katara pulled the book towards her and opened it. "Sokka, you just said you read this seven times." She smiled at him. "I think I'm going to need this book more than you. Go with them."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. See you at home."

Sokka got up and left. "Later.

After Sokka had left Katara realized how empty the chamber hall was, making it seem more large creeping her out a bit. Placing a few candles on her table, she opened the book.

"Let's see...Dragon classifications. Strike class. Fear class. Mystery class." She turned the page, revealing a silver dragon with fins. "Sea Snapper. This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. The Sea Snapper's fangs can pierce through a full grown whale. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight." She quickly turned the page. This one had a picture of a dragon that was as dark as night. "Shadow Striker. Lurks in caves and hunts only at night...When hunting the Shadow Striker silently sneaks up on it's victims and spit out a poison that blinds its victims...extremely dangerous. Kill on sight." She turned the page. "Black Wailer. Lets out a deadly wail that can kill when in close range. Extremely dangerous." Turned the page. "Gold Blaze. Kill on sight." She turned page after page quickly, the illustrations of the dragons were now a blur. "Tongue Lasher. Wind Arrow. Tiger Blast. Terra Club. Dart Shooter. Royal Inferno. Burns its victims. Buries its victims. Chokes its victims. Turns its victims inside-out. Extremely dangerous. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight. Kill on sight. Kill on sight..." Finally after several pages Katara found the page she was looking for...

Comet Eye.

Katara frowned; the page was almost completely blank. There weren't any pictures and there were only a few vague details about this dragon.

"Speed unknown. Size unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance, hide and pray it does not find you." She pulled her sketchbook out of her robe and opened it to her drawing of the Comet Eye. She laid it over the book's blank page.

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><p>Hakoda narrowed his eyes as he tried to see through the thick fog that surrounded the caves the dragons resided. In front of him was the map that led to the nest, on the corner was an illustration of mist and dragons.<p>

"I can almost smell them." he muttered. "They're close." he turned to his crew and raised his voice. "Take us in."

Slowly, the three ships drifted into the fog. The warriors held their weapons at the ready for any attack.

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><p>"Hey Bato, I just happened to notice the book had nothing on Comet Eyes. Is there another book? Or a little Comet Eye pamphlet?"<p>

A fire blast hit the wall not too far from Katara, causing her to jump in shock.

"Katara! You're not even trying!" Bato was watching from above the arena which no had tall wooden walls set up to look like a maze. The Dart Shooter was bounding along the top. Bato called out to the others. "Today... is all about attack. Dart shooters are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter."

The Dart Shooter swiped it's spiked tail, and the spikes shot out at Katara who quickly held up her shield to protect herself.

"Bato I'm really starting to question your teaching methods!" she yelled to him.

"Well quit yaking and start attacking!" Pipsqueak told her as he ran past her to dodge the dragon's attack. Katara quickly opened her water skin and was about to create a waterwhip when she saw the spikes being shot at her again and quickly raised her shield again.

"Any helpful hints WOULD be nice!" Jet called out

"Look for its blind spot." said Bato. "Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it, and strike."

Hearing this, The Duke and Pipsqueak rushed to the dragon to attack and hid in its blindspot, right between its eyes.

"Oh geez Pipsqueak, do you ever bathe?" The Duke muttered

"If you don't like it, then just get your own blind spot." Pipsqueak retorted

Hearing their argument, the Dart Shooter turned its head and saw the two. Letting out a great roar, it moved to attack them.

"Blind spot? Yes. Deaf spot? Not so much." muttered Bato.

Katara hurried over to Bato while the others ran past her.

"So is it possible to sneak up on a Comet Eye?" she asked.

"None one's ever met one and lived to tell the tale. Now get in there!"

"I know, I know, but hypothetically..."

"Katara!" Sokka whispered/yelled to her. She turned to see him crouched behind some crates with Hahn. He puts his finger to his lips and gestured for her to be quiet and hide. Suddenly the dragon leapt over the walls, landed in front of Katara. She quickly ran into its blind spot and opened her waterskin again. The dragon turned its head repeatedly to look for her but she made sure to stay in front of its large snout. Katara quickly bended some water out and was about to attack when Hahn leapt in front of her.

"Watch out babe." he said, smirking at her. "I'll take care of this."

He threw a knife at the dragon, hitting it's head with the hilt. Katara glared at him.

"The sun was in my eyes..."

The Dart Shooter roared again and Hahn and Katara ran in two different directions. The dragon ran after her, still roaring and knocking down the maze walls. The other recruits were able to get to safety without getting hurt from the falling walls. Katara looked over her shoulder to see if the dragon was still chasing her only to crash into Hahn, knocking the both of them over with Katara on top.

"Oooh! Love on the battlefield!" Pipsqueak teased

Jet rolled his eyes. "She could do better." he muttered.

Hahn smirked at Katara. "You know, I've always dreamed of you being on top of me."

Katara blushed in annoyance and glared at him. "Only in your dreams..." She looked to the side and saw the dragon charging over to them. She quickly reached to open her waterskin only to find that it had fallen off. The dragon was getting closer and Katara and Hahn struggled to untangle themself from each other. In the process, Hahn accidently ended up rolling on top of her. Starting to panic, the two looked up and saw the dragon getting closer. They both yelled as the dragon was almost upon them. Then suddenly, Sokka's boomerang came flying through the air hitting the dragon hard on the side of the head. Knocking it off course just enough to send it crashing and falling over the still standing wall next to Katara and Hahn. It got up and groaned dizzly and stumbled off to the side.

"Well done Sokka." Bato called out. Sokka let out a huge sigh of relief before walking over to Katara and Hahn and helped her up. He glared and pointed at the warrior.

"Touch my sister again and I'll put your nuts in a jar, and use them as a fishing lure!"

Hahn quickly got to his feet and stumbled away from the siblings. Sokka went to grab his boomerang, Katara following behind him.

"Thank you Sokka..."

Sokka turned and glared at her. "KATARA!"

Katara took some step back in surprise. "What?"

"QUIT CLOWNING AROUND!" he yelled. "Dad's fighting in this war, and pretty soon it'll be our turn! Get your act together, because I don't want you ending up like M-..." He bit his lip and turned his head away.

She looked at him in shock. Did he really think that she was clowning around? She was being chased by a dragon and ran into Hahn! And she had done nothing but train and fight dragons ever since the first day of training.

"But I wasn't-"

"Just focus on your training." he interrupted. He turned to leave, throwing his sheild to the side. Katara stayed where she was, hurt by his words. She ignored the stares the recruits and Bato was giving her.

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><p>Katara ignored the stares she was getting from the villagers as she walked home. No doubt what happened in training had spread. From the leers she was getting from Hahn and his older brother and his warrior buddies, the idiot was telling about her falling on him and was most likely saying it in a way that she was, a nicer way to put it, a lady of the evening.<p>

"Hey Katara!"

Katara looked around and smiled when she saw her friend Teo rolling over to her in his wheelchair.

"Hi Teo. Your dad bringing in some more weapons?"

Teo and his father lived in an old house miles from the village. Because they didn't have any livestock they didn't have to worry about dragon attacks like the village did. Teo's father, the Mechanist, made some of the weapons the villagers used for dragon attacks and battles.

"Nope, we're doing some shopping. Since winter's coming up we need to stock up on some stuff. Oh by the way, that little catapult work for you?"

Katara rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah it worked great...but I didn't really catch anything..."

"Oh, sorry. But hey," he patted her on the arm. "Always next time. Can you bring it to dragon training?"

"I wish, but I can't. I'm supposed to fight them myself with either my bending or a weapon. I really could have used it today..."

"Ooh...yeah...I heard about what happened. You okay?"

Katara nodded. "I just made a small mistake..."

"I wouldn't call you knocking over the maze in the arena and almost getting eaten by a dragon a small mistake..."

Katara couldn't help it, she had to giggle at that. "Yeah I probably wouldn't either."

"Hey Babe!" Katara rolled her eyes when she heard Hahn calling for her. Some of the nearby villagers stopped what they were doing to watch. "We've only been together for like an hour and you're already cheating on me with a cripple?" Hahn's brother and friends laughed. Teo's smile disappeared and lowered his head. Teo had been in a wheelchair for nearly his whole life and because of it he couldn't do a lot of things the other kids could do including dragon training. Teo tried to not let it bother him but when people like Hahn made snide comments about him and his wheelchair it would show that he didn't like being in one as much as he made people think.

"I'm so sorry..." Katara said to him quietly.

Teo looked up at her and tried to smile but it looked more like a grimace.

"Hey whatever, it's no big deal. I'll see you around..."

"Bye..."

Teo wheeled away to a food stall where his father was. The Mechanist saw where Teo was coming from and smiled at Katara who smiled halfheartedly back. She glared at Hahn and his friends who were still snickering. She noticed a waterbarrel nearby and smirked. In one quick movement she had the morons frozen where they stood from the neck down.

Ignoring the stares she got once again, Katara made her way home with a little more spring in her step. She didn't see Sokka when she went inside and she was just fine with that. After what happened she was not looking forward to seeing him or talking to him any time soon. She went upstairs and into her room to go through to the window to climb onto the roof. She sat down and stared out at the forest with only one thing on her mind; that Comet Eye Dragon. She kept wondering if that dragon still had trouble flying or if it was still stuck in that cove. She couldn't help but feel...guilty...Even after everything that dragon had done to her village. Katara hugged her knees to her chest. She didn't regret letting the dragon live but she did wish that she didn't hurt it so badly it couldn't fly. And she wished she didn't have to fight dragons. Though it was her dream ever since she was a girl after seeing the Comet Eye Dragon looking so weak and helpless while tied up in that bola because of her...She just couldn't bring herself to do the same thing to another dragon. She could distinclty hear a roar coming from the forest; something told her it wasn't an approaching dragon raid. She sighed and hugged her knees tighter. She knew she had to do the right thing no matter what the rest of the village would think if they found out.

Katara went back into her room, rushed out of the house and to the nearest meat stall, and ran into the forest at full speed. Remembering the way to the cove, she made it there in quick time and squeezed through the little opening. She looked around for the dragon before climbing down into the cove. Holding the meat tightly in her hands, Katara looked around warily for the Comet-Eye Dragon, waiting for it to jump out and attack her.

"Who are you?"

Katara jumped almost three feet in the air and shreeked in shock. She looked around and saw a boy she had never seen before who looked to be two years older than her leaning against the side of a large rock with the left side of his face covered in shadow. She took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Oh I'm sorry," she said, "I wasn't expecting anybody to be in here..."

The boy smiled gently at her. "I didn't mean to startle you." The smiled disappeared and he scowled at her. "BUT WHO ARE YOU!"

"Sorry, my name is Katara. I live in a village nearby. I've never seen your around her before, are you new in this area?"

"You could say that..." The boy picked at the rock he was leaning on before glaring at her again. "But what are you doing out here? These part of the woods can be very...dangerous."

"Well it's funny you mention that because um..." Katara looked around warily again for the dragon. Why hadn't it shown itself yet? Did it finally get out of the cove? "I'm looking for a dragon I saw in here yesterday."

"Really? Why would you think such a rare dragon be out here in the middle of the woods?"

"My village is threatened by dragon raids nearly every night." explained Katara. "During the last dragon raid, I shot down that rare dragon with a net. I found it and let it go. When I came here yesterday I saw it in here."

"What kind of dragon?"

"I don't know if you heard of it, it's so rare. Like one of a kind rare. The Comet Eye dragon."

"Comet Eye Dragon huh?... It's been said no man has ever been able to accomplish such a feat."

"I actually wanted to be the first to take that dragon down. Nobody believed that I could be a dragon killer because of my gender so I wanted to prove them wrong..."

The boy smirked and chuckled. "Well congratulations. 'dragon hunter' Katara." He sighed nasally and Katara glared a little at him. "Comet Eye dragon...never seen one before...but I did see a strange dragon roaming through here not to long ago."

Katara felt some excitement from this. "It might have been! What did it look like?"

"Did your dragon...I don't know...have red scales?"

"Yeah..."

"Black claws?"

"Yes..."

"Gold eyes?"

She started to get even more excited. "Yes, yes! You know where it is?"

"Yeah...It's dead..."

Excitement was replaced with shock. The Comet-Eye Dragon was...dead? "what?..."

The boy started to look smug. "Saw that dragon Yesterday...Killed it...ripped it's heart out...Dead"

Katara started to feel sick to her stomach hearing this. The scared look the dragon gave her when she almost killed it came into her mind and she almost teared up. She didn't want to believe it; that dragon couldn't be dead. It couldn't! "How could you have been able to though? No one's ever faced that dragon and lived."

"Well it's gone now...so I'd stop trying to look for it."

She sighed and rubbed her eyes with her finger and thumb. "Great...just great..."

"Yeah...with that injury it sustained from that giant bola it went pretty easily."

Katara felt even more sick to her stomach. It was her fault the dragon was killed. "Oh...that was my bola..."

The boy's glare hardened. "So it WAS you!"

"What?"

He cleared his throat. "I mean...so it was 'you'?"

"Yeah...wait...how did you know he got hit with a bola?..."

The boy sighed. "I 'really' wish you didn't notice that." The boy came out of the shadows, still glaring at her. Now that the left side of his face wasn't covered in darkness she could see the large ugly burn scar covering almost the entire side. Katara noticed it was comet shaped...but that could only mean...She gasped in realization

"You...you're the Comet Eye dragon."

The scarred boy grit his teeth "That net you shot at me really hurt by the way."

Katara took some steps back. "This can't be possible."

"Not possible?" His voice became draconic. "It is VERY POSSIBLE!" He suddenly got on all fours and his skin started to turn dark red. His hair shrunk into his head and his cloth sank into his skin as it sprouted scales. He grew claws and fangs as his face became enlonged and his nose turned into a snout. His whole size grew as two wings sprang from his body and his tail shot out from behind with a missing fin.

The girl stood in horror as the boy that stood before her had become the Comet Eye dragon. It glare at her with it's big gold eye through it's scarred face, teeth bare, and let out a mighty, angry, echoey roar!

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><p>CLIFFHANGER! :D MWAHAHAHAHA!<p>

Btw, I'm putting up a new poll "What story would you like me to update next?" so please vote on which story you'd like me to update and it will help me know for sure which to work on next and (hopefully) I'll update quicker :) I mostly worked on this one because I love this one scene so much and my co-author is in love with this story :P lol jk

I hope you loved this long-ass chapter and please review :)


	5. IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!

IMPORTANT: Fan-fiction is still deleting stories than contain yaoi, yuri, lemons, violence, stories based on songs, and any detailed sex scenes…so…just about every story on the site. Most everyone knows of the petition going around. If you haven't signed it, the link is on DarkHeartInTheSky's profile. But there is more we can do.

I'm organizing a Black Out Day. On June 23rd(according to GTM timing, so that we know we're doing it together), do NOT go onto fan-fiction. Don't read, don't review, don't message your friends, don't update. If enough people participate, then the site will notice, and will realize we take our stories seriously.

Please spread the word any way you can, in any fandom! And let me know if you're going to join. The motto is "Unleash Your Imagination." How can we if we're being given a LONG list of what we cannot write?

June 23rd. Remember it. Please.


	6. Chapter 5

Zukofan: Hey guess what!

ZStar: You got off your lazy ass, and wrote the new chapter?

Zukofan: YES I DID! :D Oh and you're one to talk, you update your stories once or twice a year :P

ZStar:...CAUSE I'M HELPING YOU!

Zukofan:...not ALL the time

ZStar: ...*looks over* oh hi ^_^'...if you are also my fans sorry I haven't updated...and yay...this one is a good one...how long is this chapter?

Zukofan: 3,858 words! ^_^

ZStar: niiiiiiiice...and that's BEFORE this opening bit.

Zukofan: only the best for the readers who wait ever so "patiently" for the next chapter

ZStar: and I'm proud to have been a co-author to this. :)

Zukofan: Hard to believe we've worked on this story for an entire year now...

ZStar: A year now, already?...damn and we're just getting started ;)

Zukofan: Yeah I'm lazy like that :P

ZStar: well lets not keep the good people waiting...NOW ON WITH THE CHAPTER!

Zukofan: ENJOY!

disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING

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><p>Katara covered her ears to block the sound of the dragonhuman/whatever's roar. The dragon snarled at her, it's large sharp fangs bared, and stepped forward. Katara screamed for help and ran away from him.

"Keep away from me!" she shrieked at him.

The dragon lept over her, cutting off her escape route and growled at her. Katara quickly bended water out of the large pond and hit him with the water whip but it didn't affect him. She bended more water out of the pond and sent it at him at full force but he let out a huge breath of fire again, evaporating all the water, creating a large amount of steam. As the steam slowly cleared Katara could see his angry eyes as smoke fumed between his teeth. She stumbled backwards and tripped over a rock, falling to the ground, and backed into a large rock as the dragon slowly advanced. He suddenly lept at her and pinned her wrists to the rock behind her. He glared angrily at her and growling as she struggled to free herself.

"Let me go!" she yelled.

The dragon snarled again and opened his mouth to let out another breath of fire. Katara struggled more against his claws but he was too strong. Just when he was about to burn her to a crisp he suddenly closed her mouth and released her. He turned away, still growling before turning back into a human.

"What are you doing?" she asked, panting a little.

"Sparing you." the dragon-human said. He wouldn't look at her.

Katara looked at him, totally shocked. He's sparing me? Again? "Just a second ago you were about to kill me." she said. "What changed your mind?"

The boy glared over his shoulder at her. "You may have taken away my ability to fly, but you spared me. I'm showing you the same kindness. But if I EVER see you again...I will not be so kind." He turned his head away again. "Now leave." He started to walk away.

Katara wanted very much to leave but her conscious told her to stay. She got to her feet and looked at the dragon. "No."

The boy stopped and was frozen in place until finally he suddenly turned around and threw a wave of fire at her. "LEAVE!"

Katara quickly bended water from the pond again to create a shield to protect herself from the fire. "I'm not going anywhere!" she said when the fire was out and the steam from it had cleared. "You may have the ability to change into a dragon but now that I know what you're capable of I'm not afraid of you!"

"I could kill you where you stand and your not afraid?"

"I'm a master in waterbending and I've been trained to become a dragon killer." She slowly pulled out her knife, the same one she had almost killed the boy with before when he was tied up in her bola, and showed it to him. He looked at the knife and back at her, glaring.

"I had your life in my hands and spared you and you still intend to kill me?" he asked in a scornful tone. He shook his head and scoffed, muttering, "Humans."

"No, actually I intend to do this." Katara went to the pond and threw her knife into the water.

He looked quizzically at her. "What do you intend to do exactly?" he demanded

"It's my fault you're not able to fly anymore so I came here to help. I even brought you some food." She finally noticed that she wasn't holding it anymore and saw that it was laying on some grass. She went to it, picked it up, and wiped it in case there was some dirt on it. "This should still be good..." she muttered to herself

The boy scoffed. "I don't need your help." he told her arrogantly. "Just because I'm flightless doesn't mean I'm-" he was interrupted by a loud growling sound coming from his stomach. Katara raised and eyebrow and smirked.

"Tell me, was that you growling or your stomach?"

The boy snarled at her, sounding exactly like he did in his dragon form. "What do you think?"

Katara giggled a little which annoyed the boy even more and her turned to leave again. "You know, if you help me get a fire going I could cook this for you."

"I DON'T need my food cooked and I DON'T need your help!" And then the boy changed back into a dragon. At first Katara was scared that he was going to attack her again but instead he turned and dashed into one of the large caves in the cove. She quietly sighed in relief and left the cove, taking the meat with her.

When Katara got home Sokka was sharpening his boomerang. He didn't look at her or say anything; he just ignored her completely. She quietly sighed again, this time in sadness, and went upstairs to go to bed. She wasn't tired but it was better than being in the same room as Sokka and having to deal with the unbearable silence. As she laid in bed Katara kept thinking about the boy who could change into the Comet Eye dragon. One of the things that shocked her the most, besides of course the fact he could change into a dragon, was his face. The large mark on the left half of his face was in the same shape as the mark on the Comet Eye Dragon. It even looked like a burn scar. What could have done that to him? And how was it even possible for him to become a dragon at all? As Katara finally drifted off to sleep, she clutched her journal tightly in her arms, the fresh drawing of the boy from the cove against her stomach.

* * *

><p>"Look alive Katara!" Katara heard Bato yell out to her before realizing that the Wind Arrow was coming for her. She pulled back her club to hit it but before she could swing the boy from the cove appeared in her mind.<p>

'Can the other dragons change into humans too? If they can why don't they change forms when we're fighting them?'

"KATARA!"

The dragon suddenly turned and swung his tail at her, blowing her backwards into the air. She landed on her back on the ground, sliding a bit.

"Hey Honey, why don't you stay there and let the man show you how it's done?"

Katara glared at Hahn who swung his machete at the Wind Arrow but the dragon jerked his head back, avoiding the attack by inches. The dragon then bit down onto the weapon. Hahn tried to pull it back out.

"LET GO YOU OVERGROWN LIZARD!"

The dragon made an almost choking sound but Katara could swear that the dragon was chuckling at him.

"Wow, I used to think that you were supposed to 'hit' the dragon with your weapon, not 'feed' it to them." she said sarcastically. She opened her water pouch, created a waterwhip with its contents, and hit the dragon in the face, hitting it in the eye. It screeched in pain and flung Hahn around until he finally let go of the machete which resulted in him getting thrown in the air and landing on Jet. Jet shoved Hahn off of himself and they yelled simultaniously at each other, "GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

The Wind Arrow turned to Katara again and sucked in air through its mouth to ready a blast. Seeing this, she quickly bended water at his snout, covering it completely with water and freezed the water so he couldn't suck in more air or open his mouth. The dragon started to stomp around, clawing at the ice muzzle. It couldn't use fire to melt the ice or it would risk burning itself.

"Good one, Katara!" Bato told her but she didn't hear him, as she was watching the dragon freak out so much she felt complete guilt for it; what if the Wind Arrow could change into a person? She was almost killing the creature! She raised her hands and thawed the ice and bended it away from the dragon's snout, much to the shock to everybody. The dragon gasped for air and glared at Katara again. He snarled, baring fangs, and readied his attack on her again.

Pipsqueak and The Duke ran up and the large teen threw the small child at the Wind Arrow and The Duck wrapped his arms around the dragon's snout to keep its mouth shut. Before the Wind Arrow realized what just happened it tried to do an air blast through its mouth only for it to backfire. The dragon stumbled around dizzily. Katara stepped forward to help Pipsqueak and The Duke.

"Maybe you should sit this one out." Bato suggested.

"I'm fine!" she told him. She created a large waterwhip, used it to grab onto one of the dragon's front legs, and pulled it back to force the dragon forward but the dragon pulled its paw back again, breaking free from the water. It started to shake its head around to throw The Duke off but the child held on tightly. As the dragon shook its head around, it stomped around to keep the teens away, almost stomping on Katara in the process if Sokka hadn't shoved her out of the way. Before long The Duke's lost his grip and flew off but luckily Pipsqueak caught him before he hit the ground. Sokka threw his boomerang at the Wind Arrow's head, hitting it on the snout. The dragon snarled at him and blew an air blast at him but Sokka got out of the way in time.

"Over here Arrowhead!" he called out before running off again and the dragon chased after him. Katara was about to go help him but Jet held her back.

*Just trust him...* he muttered to her.

Sokka continued to taunt the dragon and avoid its attacks until the dragon was angry enough to just chase him, even using its flight to make itself go faster, instead of just relying on its air blasts.

"Come and get me!" Sokka yelled to the dragon. He was standing still with his arms open in a 'bring it on' gesture. Katara almost yelled at him to move until she saw what he was standing in front of and understood what he planned. The dragon snarled, pawing at the ground like an angry saber-toothed moose lion before running at high speed towards him. When the Wind Arrow was just a few yards away Sokka simply stepped to the side and the dragon ran right into its cell, crashing into the wall inside it. Pipsqueak and The Duke helped Sokka quickly slam the cell door shut and lock it before the dragon could escape.

"Good job Sokka." Bato congratulated the young Water Tribe warrior. He turned to the others. "And nice work today to most of you...to some of you on the other hand-"

Hahn fake-coughed the word "Katara" into his hand. Katara glared at him but the others, save for Bato and Sokka, smirked and snickered. Bato sighed.

"To some of you, keep studying at home and practice. I'll see you all tomorrow..."

Katara left the stadium with Sokka. Once again there was silence between them.

"...are you still mad?..." she asked him quietly, though she was scared of what he was going to say.

"Oh no, you only meltted the ice on his nose and almost got blasted..." he said sarcastically. "You know we can't alway be around to save you."

"He couldn't breathe! I didn't want to kill him..." seeing the shocked and angry look on her brother's face she quickly added, "YET! I didn't want to kill him yet!"

"Yet!...it's them or us Katara. Pick one!"

"It's just really hard to choose either right now..." she said quietly. Unfortunately Sokka heard her.

"Well I pick us...tell me when you choose." And he stormed off, leaving Katara behind and alone.

She groaned. "Oh spirits...way to go Katara..." Not in the mood to go home and having to face the silence or getting into another fight with Sokka, she made her way over to Teo's. When she got there she saw the Mechanic working on something outside.

"Well hello Katara!" he greeted her happily.

"Hello." Katata looked at his invention. It looked like a small rectangular open wooden box, most of it was covered by a cloth. "What are you working on?"

"I'm currently working on a hot air balloon. Unfortunately it doesn't look like I'm any closer to getting it finished."

"You'll get there..." she assured him. "Is Teo home?"

"Yes, up in his room."

Katara went inside and hurried up the long ramp to Teo's room. The building used to have stairs but after the Mechanist and Teo moved in the Mechanist replaced the stairs with a ramp so that Teo would be able to go up to his room without much help. Finally she reached the top and hurried down the hall to Teo's room and knocked on the door. "Teo, it's me. I have to talk to you.."

Teo opened the door. "What's up? You okay?" he backed up so that Katara could come in and shut the door behind her. His small room was cluttered with scrolls and books and he had some of his father's finished inventions including a small catapult.

"Yes...no...I don't even know right now!..." She started to pace around the room, being careful not to step on his books or the little inventions.

"Oh...how's uh...Dragon training going?"

"It was going kinda good at first but then yesterday happened when I saw this guy-dragon-like-thing!"

Teo stared at her for a moment. "...A what?"

Katara stopped pacing and looked at him. "Okay I have to tell you something and you have to promise that you won't tell anyone okay? Not even your dad!"

"Um okay...what happened?"

"You know the Comet Eye? I shot it down a few nights ago, then freed it, and yesterday I went looking for it again and I saw this guy who actually turns into the Comet Eye dragon! The dragon is a guy!"

Teo stared at her again, this time for a longer period of time. Katara stared back at him impatiently for a reaction. Suddenly he started laughing hard.

"You're laughing...Why are you laughing?"

He tried to stop laughing, "Sorry...But I think you got knocked around to many times during training."

"I'm telling the truth Teo!" she almost yelled out desperately. "If I thought I was crazy I wouldn't be telling you this! I swear I met a guy who turned into the Comet Eye dragon!"

He looked at her skeptically. "...Your serious?"

"_Very_. Serious."

Teo shrugged. "Sorry Katara. I just don't believe you."

"What will it take for me to get you to believe me?..."

"Some sort of evidence I guess."

Katara then got an idea; she reached into her robe and pulled out her journal. She quickly flipped the pages until she found the pictures she drew of the Comet Eye dragon and of the boy. She showed the pictures to him. "Enough evidence for you?"

He looked at the pictures in confusion. "Who's this?"

"That's the guy! I don't know his name but that's the guy!"

"That scar...amazing. You're _sure_?"

I saw him change into the draqon and then change back."

Pause. "Okay I believe you...but..."

"What?..."

"No one has ever seen this before...is it possible he's the only one like this?"

"That's the thing, I don't even know...And now I'm the worst in dragon training because I kept hesitating when we were fighting the Wind Arrow because I didn't know if he was like the Comet Eye or what!"

"Huh...so what are you going to do?"

"I don't know...do you think I should go back?"

"I don't know...he could be dangerous. What if he sees you?"

"I can take care of myself. And maybe if I show him that I don't want to hurt him maybe he won't try to kill me again..."

"...Again?"

"Yeah...one of the first things he tried to do was kill me..."

"So he saw you already?"

"Yeah. We actually talked a little before he changed into a dragon and tried to kill me."

"Well what he say?...it speaks english?"

"Yeah he speaks english. He tried to convince me that he killed the Comet Eye but then he changed into a dragon and attacked me. But then he backed off and he told me to leave."

"Oh...well if you can ask him as many questions as you can. I can't believe it...a dragon/human hybrid." He suddenly started to look really excited. "He could be the key to ending this stupid war!"

"Maybe...let's not get our hopes up though. He wasn't exactly Mr. Positive."

"Oh come on Katara! If he's the only one we could get information on dragons we only dreamed of! And if there are others like him...this is AMAZING!"

"...Okay I'll go back today and try to talk to him."

"Great. Oh this is so exciting!"

Katara couldn't help but smile at her friend's excitement.

* * *

><p>After leaving Teo's house Katara quickly went home to grab some meat. She saw Sokka in the sitting room but he ignored her again. After grabbing a bit of meat she hurried back outside and ran into the woods towards the cove. When she finally made it there and snuck in she could see the boy in dragon form chasing a rabbit. She pulled her notebook out of her dress and drew the dragon while she watched him chase his prey. The dragon was fast but the rabbit was faster. Dragons weren't used to chasing their prey on solid ground, they had always been able to use their flight to swoop down and pick up their meals. Just when the dragon was close enough to clamp his fangs around the rabbit it ran into a little hole in the rocky wall. Before he could realize what happened and stop, the dragon's head was forced into the little hole. The dragon roared in annoyance, put his paws on either side of the whole and started to push his head out. Katara couldn't help but giggle a little at the dragon's predicament. She closed her notebook and put it back in her dress picked up the meat she brought. After a few minutes of pushing and struggling the dragon was finally able to free his head from the hole and shook the dirt off. He glanced back at his tail and changed back into a human.<p>

"Curse that water bender." he growled. "Without my flight I'm good as dead anyway..." Then he picked up a new scent...the delicious scent of cooking meat and smoke. His stomach growled and again and he smirked. "Or maybe not..."

Katara was still on her ledge hidden behind the rocks and cooking the meat on a large flat stone she found. The stone was propped on other rocks over a fire she made. As the meat cooked she peared around the rock she was hiding behind slightly to look at the dragon and smirked when she saw that she had his attention. The boy climbed up the ledge and peaked over, expecting to see a hunter cooking his kill only to see no one. All there was was a hunk of meat roasting on a flat rock propped over a fire. He lick his lips as he approached the meal, having to eat nothing but a few berries for days. Just as he was going to take it a familiar voice was heard.

"So it looks like you do need some help dragon."

The boy turned around in shock to find the smirking waterbender learning against a large rock she had hidden behind.

"YOU!"

"You actually thought I left? I thought I had made it clear that I wasn't going anywhere."

"I said I don't need your help!" He attempted to firebend at her only to produce a small flame due to his weakness.

Katara gave him a dull look. "Oh no, someone help."

"If I wasn't so hungry I'd...er..." he trailed off, clearing his throat. "Well I'm still stealing this food."

She shrugged "Ok. Go ahead and take it."

"I will." He held his hand over the meat but didn't take it.

"I thought you were going to take the food."

"...just so we're clear...I'm _stealing_ from you. you are _not_ helping me..."

Katara shrugged again. "Whatever you say dragon."

The boy still held his hand over the meat... He roared in frustration and stomped the ground. "WHY ARE YOU SO INFURIATING?"

"Will you just calm down? I want to help you! It's my fault you got hurt so let me make it up to you!"

"You should have done that in the first place! Or you could have at least killed me so I could've died with dignity, instend of starving to death."

Katara looked down, ashamed. "I know. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for leaving me flightless?" he asked scornfully. "Or not killing me?"

"I'm sorry for hurting you so badly you can't fly."

"Well..." he swiped the chunk of meat from the flat stone. He used some firebending to cook the meat more before taking a bite. "Then you owe me...you will bring me food everyday from now on..."

"How am I supposed to do that every day? I have training!"

"Not my problem." he walked over to her until they were barely an inch away from each other and loomed over her. "You said you wanted to help right? So that's how it's going to be..."

Katara glared up at him, not stepping back or looking away. Finally she sighed. "Ok fine. But I have training so I'm only going to be able to come in some time after midday."

"Fine."

* * *

><p>So I've been getting questions on how Katara can still be seen as weak when she's a master waterbender. It's going to come up later just so you guys know so please be patient! :)<p>

Oh and I updated the poll 'Which story should I update next?' so be sure to vote!


	7. Chapter 6

In honor of the new How to Train Your Dragon show Riders of Berk premiering tonight on Cartoon Network (7:30 Pacific time) I have updated How to Train Your Boyfriend! ^_^ Hope you like it!

disclaimer: I don't own anything!

* * *

><p>The day after she went to see the dragon and they made that deal, Katara went to Teo's house after dragon training. Though today went much better than the day before she still dealt with taunts from her fellow trainers and the silent treatment from her brother. She really wanted to see a friendly face, especially after having to deal with the dragon boy's rude greeting and his other snide comments when she went to give him food. The Mechanist invited her inside and she went up to Teo's room. "Hey Teo."<p>

Teo smiled widely at her. "Katara! How'd it go?"

Katara shrugged. "Well he didn't kill me...that's a good start right?"

"Yes it is! So what did you find out?"

"Nothing that useful...He still can't fly away so he's having me bring him food every day since I 'owe him'."

The smile melted off of Teo's face. "Oh...hey I've been looking at this picture you had of the dragon." He held up the picture of the boy in his dragon form.

"What about it?"

"I think I have a theory on why he's not flying." He pointed at the tail of the dragon in the picture. "He's missing a tail fin. It probably helps his steering. Without it, his flying is out of wack."

Katara sighed in disappointment. "So I'm stuck with him forever..."

"Actually I got an idea on what we could do to help the dragon out."

"Really? What?" She smiled excitedly.

"We could make an artifical tail fin for him."

"That sounds like a good idea!" She frowned. "How are we going to make one?"

"...Well..." He looked at her almost nervously. "We could ask my dad..."

"I don't know if that would be a good idea..."

Teo shrugged. "Well I wouldn't have a clue how to make one by myself."

Katara hesitated. "He won't tell anyone right?..."

"Well...he _shouldn't_..."

She hesitated again before sighing. "I guess we don't really have much choice then..."

The two went outside where the Mechanist was still working on his project and with much difficulty on Katara's part, told the Mechanist about the dragon boy. Like Teo, he was shocked at the idea of a dragon-human hybrid but then became excited when realizing that this could bring the end of the war between the humans and the dragons. After Katara explained the dragon boy not being able to fly because he was missing a tail fin the Mechanist agreed to help make a new fin. Teo and the Mechanist got start on the fin while Katara hurried home to let Sokka know that she was going to be staying the night at Teo's. Unfortunately he was with the guys so when she attempted to tell him he just ignored her while the others just sneered at her. Keeping the tears from falling down her face, Katara gave up and just went back to Teo's house to help make the fin. It took hours, nearly the entire night, but the three of them finally finished the fin. It was made of leather and was the exact same size and shape as the old fin.

Katara came into the cove with two bags over her shoulder. One was filled with food for the dragon, the other was larger and had the fake fin inside of it. She looked around for him.

"Hey draaaaaaagoooooon." She called to him. "I brought you your dinner." Suddenedly he dropped down from behind her in his dragon from and made her jump. "Oh it's you." She sighed. "I brought you your dinner."

He turned human as he walked up to her. "'Bout time."

"I brought you enough food to last the night and the morning." She tossed the bag to the dragon who caught it and started to go through it. He looked up at Katara who was still standing where she was, waiting for him to thank her.

"You still here? You can leave now."

Katara narrowed her eyes slightly at him. "Actually there's something I have to do here first."

"Fine. Just leave me out of it." He took a piece of meat out of the bag, used his firebreath to cook it and ate it. Katara couldn't help but feel a bit revolted at this. He was in his human form but he ate like a dragon; she could swear that she couldn't even see fangs inside his mouth instead of regular teeth. She went to go behind some rocks with her extra bag and pulled out the prosthetic tail fin.

_I gotta wait for him to become a dragon first before I can slip this on him..._

She looked over at the dragon and watched him eat, waiting for him to change forms. He quickly finished off the food she had brought and tossed the bag aside. He went to a nearby rock and laid on it to take a nap. Feeling like he was being watched, he looked over at Katara.

"Why are you still here?"

"I told you there was some stuff I had to do."

"Well as long as it doesn't involve me..." He got up, changed into a dragon, and ran off to find a spot where he hoped she wouldn't see him.

Feeling excited, she rushed over to where he ran off to, keeping as quiet as possible. She saw him burn a circle on the ground with his fire breathing and laid on the charred ground to take a nap. He looked over at Katara who was sitting nearby and glared again. She slowly edged a little closer to him and reached out for his tail but he quickly pulled it away and growled.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. Just...just hold still." Katara tried to touch his tail again but he pulled his tail back again and faked a lunge at her. She yelped in surprise and fell back on her rear. They glared at each other. "Very funny." A ghost of a grin appeared on the dragon's face and he snorted at her before turning over so that his back was to her, leaving his tail exposed. Katara smirked and lunged for the tail, pinning it to the ground. She picked up the prosthetic fin and started to strap it to the tail when he roared and swung his tail around, attempting to throw her off. She held on tightly and was able to successfully strap the fin onto the tail before her gripped slipped and she was thrown to the side. She landed on the ground, skidding a little. She sat up, wincing a little and looked at her arm; she saw a bad cut on her arm. She winced again, her eyes watering slightly form the pain but she quickly blinked them away. "Ow." The dragon looked at his tail and glared suspiciously at her, growling. She put her hand over the cut to stop the bleeding; she would have to heal it later. "Do you wanna fly again or not?" She asked him. He looked at his tail again then back at her with confusion on his face. "That fake fin will help you fly again. You're welcome." He continued to glare at her but climbed onto a large rock, spread his wings, and leapt into the air. Katara smiled when she saw that he was flying straight until he started losing balance and started to dive. He roared loudly, almost sounding like a scream, and crashed hard onto the ground.

"Oh no!" Katara opened her water pouch and ran to him to heal any wounds he got from the crash landing. The dragon changed back into a human and Katara could see that he had a big cut on his forehead. He groaned in pain. "I am so sorry! Here let me take care of that." She bended some water out of her pouch and formed water gloves around her hands. She was about to place her hands on his forehead when he slapped them away.

"Haven't you done enough!?" He yelled at her. He looked at her arm and saw the blood from her cut. "Shouldn't you be worried about your own wounds?"

"I think I should help you before I help myself. Let me heal you, it's better than just letting that cut get worse." She tried to put her hand on his forehead again but he quickly pulled away. "Stop being so freaking stubborn and let me heal you!"

"GET AWAY FROM MEEEEEEE!" He swiped his arm and a small wave of fire was thrown at her. The flames hit Katara's hands and she screamed in pain. She bent over, hugging herself tightly as her flesh burned and she felt her hands throb. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR HELP FOR ONE DAY!"

"You didn't have to burn my hands you stupid dragon!" She yelled at him as she rushed to the pond and put her hands in to heal them. She suddenly felt some weight on her back and she was forced onto the ground with the bottom part of her head in the water.

"If _I'm_ the stupid one then why didn't your fake tail work!?" The dragon hissed angrily in her ear as he held her down. She bended the water from the pond and threw it at him, knocking him over. She pulled her head out of the water and took in a breath. The dragon quickly recovered and threw a fireball at her but she bended more water out of the pond and raised it in front of herself to shield herself from the flames. The shield evaporated from the fireball and the dragon charged at her shooting another fireball. She dodged it and bended up a huge wave of water from the pond at him and slamed him into a rock. The dragon yelled out and leaned against the rock with one arm, his face straining in pain.

_Oh no!_ Katara ran to the dragon to see if he had any injuries besides that cut on his forehead. "Are you okay?" He suddenly lunged at her and pinned her to the ground by her wrists.

"Everything you try is going to end up like this." He snarled at her. The pressure he was putting on her cut arm caused her to wince in pain but she tried to hide it. She glared defiantly up at him and he glared back.

"Try a stunt like that again...AND NEXT TIME YOU WON'T BE SO LUCKY!"He got off of her and walked away. "Don't be late tomorrow."

Katara sat up and glared at him angrily, before getting to her feet, and got in a bending stance. She bended water out of the pond and hit him on the back of his head with a water whip. He turned and glared at her.

"Are you brain dead?"

She wiped off a bit of the blood off her arm and showed it to him. "See this?!" She demanded angrily. "What am I supposed to say to my brother about this?!"

"Not. My. Problem." He turned and stopped to see the blood on his hand from her cut. He slowly turned back to her and stared at her for about two second before changing into a dragon and running off. Katara growled quietly and got some water out of the pond to clean the blood from her arm. When she was finished she climbed out of the cove and went home. Sokka wasn't home yet and that was just fine with her. She was really close to snapping and she did _not_ need Sokka's silent treatment or rude comments. She went up to her room and laid on her bed. She held her necklace charm in her fingers. _What am I supposed to do Mom?_


	8. Chapter 7

Katara trudged to the cove the next day. She wasn't looking forward to seeing the dragon today after what happened the day before. She was halfway there when she heard a really loud roar. She groaned in annoyance. "Better hurry. The dragon sounds really angry..." She ran to the cove and was about to climb down when she saw the actual source of the roaring; a large boarcupine. The boarcupine and the dragon were circling each other, daring each other to make the first move.

_I gotta help him!_ Katara quickly climbed down into the cove.

The dragon and the boarcupine didn't notice the waterbender, their eyes on each other, snarling with their backs hunched. Suddenly both beasts charged each other. The dragon raised its paws as he slammed into the boarcupine's tusks, stopping it. The dragon clawed at the boarcupine's snout and it squealed angrily. It tried to push him back but the dragon pressed down on its tusks, sending its face sliding into the ground. Katara watched the fight from behind a large rock. She was in awe; she had never seen anything do so well in a fight against a boarcupine. The boarcupine shot a few quills at the dragon and they hit him in his face. The dragon winced but shoved himself back and shot a fireball in front of it in order to spook it. The boar roared in fear but wasn't going to be scared that easily. It pawed at the ground before running around the fire and at the dragon again to ram into his side, but the dragon tail whipped it in the eyes, blinding it momentarily and missing him who dodged at the last moment. The dragon suddenly heard cheering and looked around to see the waterbender cheering him on. He was so surprised seeing her he didn't see the boar ram into him. He went sliding against the ground and almost fell off the ledge. He dug his claws into the ground and hung on the edge, his legs dangled off the edge of the rock he was clinging to for dear life. He clawed at the ground, and tired kicking off the rock with his back legs to get up but he couldn't get hold of the rock right. Trying to get back up but saw the boar charging again. Before the boar could knock the dragon off the edge a waterwhip hit it on the snout and it squealed again.

"Over here!"

The boar turned around and saw Katara. It glared at her with it red eyes before it pawed at the ground and charged at her.

_I should've thought this through!_

She bended more water out of the pond and combined it with the water from her pouch to create a large wave of water and threw it at the boarcupine. She copied her brother, remembering how he saved her and Hahn from the Dart Shooter. Slamming the wave into the side of its head making to veer off and missed her, ramming its face into a tree. Katara grinned in excited hoping that worked. But the boarcupine shook it off and turned around looking even madder. Her face dropped as it flung quills at her. She threw up an ice shield and blocked them, but without missing a beat the boarcupine charged and smash through the ice. Katara made an immediate heel turn and bolted with the beast right on her heels. They were quickly approaching the edge of the cliff. Katara grabbed a tree branch and made a sharp left turn. The boarcupine skidded to a halt right at the edge of the cliff. As Katara was looking passed the animal to where the dragon was…he was gone! Did he fall? He escape? Where is he! She couldn't continue here thoughts as the boarcupine gave chase again. She cursed herself for dropping all her water as she ran along the edge of the cliff. She saw a short wall stone in the distance, probably about 10 feet. She figured if she could climb over it she could get away from the boarcupine. Running as quickly she hit the walk and climbed straight up. She was up just as the boarcupine try to crawl up and almost bit her foot.

"AH!" She yelped. She smiled down at the boarcupine whom she was out of reach now. Proud of herself for outsmarting the beast she turned to climb over the wall, but when she try to go up, the stone was too smooth to climb…she was trapped!

Meanwhile, The dragon had lucky climbed up and managed to get away while the human was distracting that boarcupine. _That stupid human…that's the third time she's almost got me killed. Let her get chased around and she how she likes it. I mean with her dumb luck she'll get away…right?_

"GET AWAY!" The dragon turned his head. _That sounded like the girl._ The dragon thought it over. Why should he go back and help her? She distracted him and almost and got knocked off a cliff, but if she didn't distract the boarcupine he wouldn't have been able to climb, all of this her fault in the first place and-. The dragon shook his head. It was so CONFUSING! He thought he might think better on a full stomach…HIS FOOD! SHE HAS IT AND THAT BOARCUPINE IS GOING TO GET IT! He turned and ran back to the cliff_._

The boarcupine squealed at Katara and rammed at the rock. She tried to keep her balance on the rock but before she could do anything the boarcupine rammed into the rock again. She suddenly slipped and fell off the rock and hit the ground. The boarcupine snorted at her and was about to go for the kill when the dragon leaped over a bush and slammed sideways into the boar and knocked it over the ledge. It crashed on the ground thirty feet below before getting up, shook off the rubble, and retreated. The dragon stood at the ledge and let out a mighty victory roar. Katara went to the dragon to check his injuries and saw that the right side of the dragon was covered in quills. He walked toward her with a limp, breathing heavily and looking dizzy. Katara gasped and rushed over to him.

"You're hurt, let me help you." When she went to check his side he used his tail to shove her away. He tried to limp off but after only taking a few steps he swayed and fell over on his good side. He turned back into a human before losing consciousness completely. She knelt down next to the dragon and looked over the quills. She grabbed one of the quills. "This is gonna hurt." She told the still unconscious boy and yanked it out. The boy winced but didn't wake up.

Katara continued to carefully yank out the quills and pulled up his vest and shirt to use her waterbending to treat his injuries. When she was finished she hid the boy behind some rocks in case any more dangerous animals came and climbed out of the cove. She ran faster than she had ever ran before to the village.

"Hey what's your hurry Katara?" Bato called out to her as she sprinted past but she didn't stop to answer or even look back at him.

When she got to her house she shoved the door open so hard it hit the wall hard. Sokka came down the stairs and looked at her.

"Katara, is something wrong?" He asked, actually looking concerned. Katara ignored him and ran upstairs to grab her sleeping bag. "Hey!" Still ignoring him, she grabbed a bag and put flint rocks, bandages, and medicine in it and hurried downstairs into the kitchen. She went through the cupboards and pulled out some ingredients for soup. "Hey what are you doing?!" Seeing her sleeping bag, he asked. "Are you running away?" When Katara still didn't answer him he grabbed her arm and had her turn around to face him. "Will you just answer me?!"

"Oh so _now_ you care about what I do now?!" Katara asked angrily. She jerked her arm out of his grip and slipped her bag over her shoulder. "I'm not running away _okay_?! I actually have to go do something important!" She hurried to the door.

"Where are you going?!"

"NOWHERE OKAY?! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" She slammed the door and ran back to the woods, ignoring the stares from the villagers. She climbed back into the cove and dropped her things. Katara pulled the boy out of the hiding spot, opened his vest and pulled off his shirt so she could put medicine on his wounds. The first thing she saw when she pulled off his shirt were muscles on his chest and stomach. She looked in amazement; not only is the dragon the only creature she's seen fight a boarcupine and live, he was also the first boy she's ever met to actually have muscle. Not even Sokka, who had been training to fight dragons since he was a child, had a build even close to the dragon's. Though of course dragons did fly and run a lot and were very strong so this shouldn't surprise her. Katara wiped some medicine on the dragon's side where the quills hit him before bandaging his chest and stomach. With some difficulty, Katara was able to get the boy into the sleeping bag she brought. She gathered some wood and used her flint rocks to start a fire. She set up a pot over the fire and got started on some soup. The soup was almost done when she heard groaning and she looked down to see the dragon waking up.

"Oh good." She sighed in relief. "You're awake."

The boy groaned again. "Water..." Katara bended some water out of her pouch and slowly dipped it into his mouth. He gratefully drank the cool liquid. "What happened?"

"You had some quills stuck in you after that fight with the boarcupine." Katara explained. "It took me a while but I was able to pull them all out."

"Quills? Boarcupine?" The boy rubbed his head. "Why does my head hurt so much?"

"I think those quills had some poison in them. The poison isn't fatal but you might feel a bit weak for a while."

He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Poison? How is that possible?"

Katara shrugged. "Boarcupines like to brush up against poisonous plants and it gets on their quills. It's not deadly like I said, but just potent enough to make you sick." She bended some water over her hands and put them on either side of his head to stop the pain. The boy groaned again and closed his eyes.

"I'm starting to remember...A boarcupine attack me, and I was winning until..." He opened his eyes and glared up at her. "UNTIL YOU SHOWED UP!"

She glared back at him and pulled her hands away from his head. "At least I tried to help you!"

"Why is it whenever you show up things go wrong?"

Katara's eyes widened when she heard this statement. For half her life everyone had said this to her when something bad happened during the dragon raids. Not that the bad things that happened were always her fault but she always got the blame because she was a girl. Feeling stung, she angrily ladled some soup into a bowl for him, dropped the bowl next to him and walked away. He watched her leave, confused that she didn't even talk back. He shrugged and looked his soup. It was brown and steamy. He could see pieces of vegetation and meat in it. _What is this? Looks like dirty water. _He brought it to his nose and sniffed. _It smells good though. _He bit his tongue and took a slip.

Katara climbed up the wall to the ledge and sat down. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her robe. When the boy finished eating he waited for her to come back but then after a while he fell asleep. After making sure he was asleep, Katara slowly slid down the rock wall and went back to the dragon to pack some of her things. She left the food and the medicine for him. As she put out the fire, another tear ran down her face. "Hey."

She started and looked at the boy who was sitting up and looking at her. "Why you crying?" He asked. He didn't look annoyed but he didn't look too concerned either. "You're not the one who got turned into a pin cushion today."

Katara quickly turned away and wiped her eyes. "I'm not crying, I just got some smoke in my eye." She sniffed

He looked at her disbelievingly. "Oh...okay." There was a long silence as Katara continued to pack up some of her things and the boy watched. "Thank you by the way."

She looked at her surprised. "For what?"

"I don't know...but what is it with you?"

"What do you mean? I'm just cleaning up my stuff."

"I mean...why or you so concerned with me? You humans have been hunting us down forever but you've been bending over backwards to help me no matter how much I threaten you. Why?"

Katara looked away. "It's um, it's stupid, really. I guess when I had the chance to kill you I just...I don't know, I just knew I couldn't do it. I've never done it before. And now seeing you hurt because of me, I just wanted to make it up to you." She slipped her bag onto her shoulder and walked away.

"WAIT!"

She stopped and looked over her shoulder to glare at him. "Why should I?" She demanded angrily. "Every time I try helping you, I hurt you and you hurt me and yell at me! Well I'm sick of it!"

"Look..." He sighed. "I guess you did help with the boarcupine today. I shouldn't have yelled at you...and...I'm..."

"You're what?"

"I'm...sorry."

Katara turned around and looked at him in shock. "You are?"

"Yeah. And you did patch me up so..." He looked away. "Thank you for that..."

"But you said so yourself that if I hadn't shown up during the fight-"

"Well I didn't have to slam myself into that boarcupine." He rubbed his bandaged chest. "So that one could be my fault."

She sighed and walked over to him. "I really am sorry for what happened to you."

"Yeah...about that...could you try doing that again?"

"What?"

"You said you could try to fix my flight. Could you try doing that again?" He looked at her seriously. "I mean I don't want to have to be feed for the rest of my life...I'm not a pet you know."

Katara smiled a little. "I guess we could try again." She looked in the pot and saw that there was still some soup left. "Do you want the rest of this?"

The boy picked up his bowl and handed it to her. "Sure. What is that stuff anyway?"

She bended the soup into his bowl and gave it back to him. He used firebending to heat it back up. "It's soup."

He looked at her weirdly. "What?"

"Soup. You know, hot water with spices, meat, vegetables, sometimes noodles..."

"Noodles?"

She gave him a surprised look. "Wait, is this your first time eating soup?"

"Well, yeah! What, you think dragons can just walk to the markets to get stuff to make soap?"

"Soup."

"Whatever!"

"Well I just thought that since you can change into a human..."

"Doesn't mean I know how to cook. Sure I'll use my fire breathing to cook some of my food but that's it. And hey, I doubt everybody in your village know how to cook right?"

"Well...it's just the women who cook in my village..."

"Exactly!" He yawned. "It's late. I'm going to sleep."

"I should be going anyway." Katara walked away from the boy again to climb up the wall.

"Well see you...what was it?"

She stopped and looked at him. "My name is Katara. Your's?"

"Mine?" The boy hesitated before answering. "It's Zuko."

"Well, good night Zuko." She climbed up the rock wall and left the cove.

Zuko laid down on his good side and closed his eyes. "Night...Katara..."

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><p>Zukofan: Next chapt we get to the dragon riding! ^_^ I'm so excited for that one<p>

ZStar: me too! I'm glad we finally got this one up

Zukofan: Yeah! This would have been up sooner but what with Zstar's busy schedule he needed more time to betaread and add good number of nice additions in this chapt :)

ZStar: Yeah ^_^'...well...I am the one who came up with the idea for this chapter, but I glad I'm co-authors with you.

Zukofan: And it was an awesome idea :)

ZStar: thanks :P

Zukofan: And I'm glad that I'm co-authors with you too ^_^

ZStar: thanks again :)...READ AND REVIEW!

Zukofan: And to those of you who are still making comments about how I made Katara weak in this I will say this again: THE REASON FOR THIS WILL COME UP LATER IN THE STORY. JUST BE PATIENT.


	9. Chapter 8

disclaimer: I don't own ATLA or How to Train Your Dragon

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><p>Sokka was livid when Katara finally came home. He demanded to know where she was and told her to never scare him like that ever again. She just told him that there was an emergency at Teo's house and went upstairs but not before Sokka pulled her in for a hug.<p>

"Scare me like that again and you're grounded for a year." He muttered in her ear. Surprised, Katara returned the hug and smiled. She was happy that he was finally talking to her again.

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><p>Because Bato was needed in his weapons stall, dragon training was canceled the next day. This suited Katara just fine; she did not need to go through another day of taunting from the guys. It's not <em>completely<em> her fault that she's not that good at fighting dragons, her father just never gave her any training like he did Sokka. Though she was a master waterbender, heck she was the best waterbender in the entire village, but sometimes that wasn't enough against a powerful firebreathing dragon. Since there was no training that day Sokka offered Katara some of the training their dad taught him and as much as she wanted to accept it she had to go to the dra-ZUKO to give him his food and help him with his flight. Before she went to see Zuko, she went to Teo's house to tell him about the problem with the tail fin.

"I think the problem is he needs something to control the fin so that it can work with his movements." Katara told Teo and the Mechanist.

"Hmm..." The Mechanist rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he tried to come up with an idea. He then raised a finger. "Or perhaps SOMEONE."

Katara gave him a confused look. "Huh?"

The Mechanist went to the little barn where their ostritch horse was sleeping and grabbed its saddle from the wall. He showed it to her. "Would you say this is the right size for the Comet Eye?"

At this, Katara's eyes widened. "Nononononoooooo I am _not_ riding that jerk!"

"You don't have much choice I'm afraid. Now if I make the proper alterations you may be able to control the dragon's tail fin-"

"I can't ride him! He won't let me!"

"If he wants to fly again he'll have to." Said Teo.

Katara groaned. "Something tells me this isn't going to end well..."

While Teo and the Mechanist made the alterations to the saddle, Katara went back to town to get the food she needed for Zuko. Luckily Sokka wasn't home so she didn't have to worry about him asking questions. When she returned Teo and his dad showed Katara a pedal they installed the saddle with which would help control the fin along with a cord attached to the peddal to hook up to the fin itself. Katara reluctantly took the saddle and made her way to the cove. When she climbed down the rocks, she saw Zuko as a dragon curled up in his little cave. When he saw her he changed into his human form and approached her. She quickly hid the saddle behind some rocks before he could see it.

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

Zuko rubbed his bandages. "Well I'm not dizzy anymore."

"Here's breakfast." She handed him the bag of food. "Training was canceled today so I decided to come here earlier so we can have more time working on getting your flight back."

He was looking worried. "You sure this is gonna work?"

"Positive. See, I think one of the major reasons why the last one wasn't working was because you need something" _Or maybe someone..._ "To keep it open while you fly."

Zuko actually smiled slightly. "Oh so I have a way to control it myself?"

"Well, not exactly..." Katara nervously scratched the back of her head. "The only way I could think of for you to be able to actually fly again while wearing the fin is..."

His smiled disappeared and he looked at her skeptically. "Is what?"

"I have to ride you."

"... No."

"Come on, you want to fly again don't you?"

"I don't know what's going through your small mind. But I'd rather stay flightless than depend on someone else, much less a _human_, for my needs."

"You'd rather be stuck in this giant hole forever? You know eventually someone is gonna find you."

"Then you'd have to be with me all the time...Not exactly liking that idea."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Believe me, I'm not liking it any more than you do. You're not always going to be so safe in here you know. Eventually someone is gonna find you, dragon form or human form, and let me tell you there are some pretty judgemental people in my village when it comes to firebenders or having a resemblance to a certain dangerous dragon."

"So what, if someone _does_ find me, you just going to run away with me?" He asked sarcastically.

"I'd rather be burnt to a crisp by a Royal Inferno."

Zuko glared at her. "Well then, what's the point of you riding me?"

"You want to fly or don't you?"

Zuko opened his mouth to retort but knew she had a good point and groaned in frustration. "...We crash I'm using you to break my fall."

"Whatever."

Without another word Zuko changed back into a dragon and turned so that she could get the fin on his tail. She went to the rocky wall of the cove that the fin was leaning against since the first try. She strapped the fin to his tail and opened it. She was relieved to see that it didn't get destroyed from the first try.

"Perfect. Okay, now, before we do this there's something I need to get." She went to the rocks and pulled out the saddle she brought. "I need to put this on you."

Seeing the saddle, Zuko jumped away and growled at her.

"What were you expecting?" She asked, annoyed. "That I just hang on to your tail?" She saw him shrug his large scaly shoulders and rolled her eyes. "I'm not hanging on to your tail. Just let me put this on you!"

The dragon groaned in annoyance and reluctatly lied down so she could get the saddle on him.

"Good boy." She heard the dragon huff at the comment but she ignored him. She put the saddle on his back. It looked like it could be the perfect fit. "I'm going to need you to stand up in order for me to strap it on."

He stood up and Katara laid on her back underneath him. She finished strapping the saddle but before she could scoot out from underneath him all the way he suddenly laid down on top of her lower half. She yelled out in surprise and tried to pull herself out but he was too heavy. She was about to tell him that she was still under him she heard a soft growling sound coming from him that almost sounded like a laugh.

"This is not funny Zuko!" She yelled angrily.

He kept laughing and snorting and leaned his head against his paw as he watched her struggle.

"I am about two seconds away from screaming for help." She threated. "We wouldn't want anyone to find a big scary dragon crushing a poor defenseless girl would we?" She smirked when she saw his eyes widen. He narrowed his eyes again and stood back up. She crawled out from under him and straightened out her robes. "Yeah that's what I thought."

He continued to glare at her as she finished making adjustments and hooked the tail fin to the left part of the saddle where the paddle was.

"Let's pray this works." She muttered as she climbed onto Zuko's back. To her surprise she could feel the dragon's heat through the leather of the saddle. Without a doubt being on a dragon's back was the strangest thing ever for her. She never even rode an ostritch horse but she knew that it wouldn't be as weird as this. "This feels so weird..."

_How do you think I feel?_ Zuko growled as he mounted on a rock and spread his wings. He looked back her waiting for a signal.

Katara put her foot into the stirrup and pressed down on it, opening the tail fin. "Let's do this."

He crouched down on the ground and pounced into the air. Katara hung onto the saddle tightly so she wouldn't fall off. She looked back at the fin and to her relief it was still there. They were ascending above the trees when they started swaying wildly. Zuko growled at her, as if already expecting a fall to happen any second. Katara looked back at the tail fin and saw that the position of the fake fin didn't match the real one. She pressed her foot against the pedal and the fake fin spread itself out more like the real one did, causing Zuko's flying to be more stable.

"Yes!" She yelled out excitedly as they flew around the cove. "It's working! I can't believe it's working!" She raised her arms in excitement only to slide off the saddle a bit and she quickly grabbed the saddle again but because of her almost sliding off the heel of her foot pushed down on the pedal so the tail fin flattened itself against his tail. Before she could rectify her mistake they were already spinning in the air and landing in the water. Using her bending, Katara shot to the surface and as soon as her head burst from the water she took a deep gulp of air.

"Least we didn't crash on the ground right, Zuko?" When she didn't get an answer she rolled her eyes, "Oh now you're mad?" She looked around but was surprised that she didn't see Zuko at all. She immediately took a deep breath and went back underwater where she saw Zuko in his human form at the bottom of the water, the saddle pining him down. She swam to him, unstrapped the saddle, and helped him get to the surface. "Are you ok?"

He coughed the water out of his lungs. "I thought you said it worked!"

"It did! I just have to learn how to use it without another crash landing." Katara let him go and went back under water to get the saddle and fake fin. Before she could even swim two feet she heard him splashing around above her.

"HEY I CAN'T SWIM!"

She almost rolled her eyes and swam back up to him and helped him to the shore. "You can fly, you bend fire, you can take on boarcupines but YOU CAN'T _swim_?"

He crawled onto land and coughed again. "Sorry, I used to _fly_ everywhere." He snarled. "Swimming wasn't something I picked up. Besides you seemed awfully surprised it was working."

"Hey, after the disaster the other day I was having all my fingers crossed."

Zuko used his firebending to dry himself off and grabbed his bag of food Katara brought him. "So much for 'postive'." He muttered before glaring at her. "You're really are going to be the death of me, aren't you?"

Katara rolled her eyes. "Well aren't you just Mr. Positive? Go eat your breakfast, I gotta get the saddle and the fin out."

"Fine..." He reached into the bag and pulled out some seal jerky. "And you say 'good boy' or treat me like a pet again I will fling you into a tree and see how you like it."

"Yeah yeah..." She took another deep breath and dived underwater. She was at the bottom of the pond when she could almost hear a yell. She grabbed the fin and the saddle and with the help of her waterbending swam back up. She jumped out of the water and looked around for something that was trying to attack Zuko. When she saw there was nothing, she glared at him in annoyance. "What now?"

Zuko was on his feet and looking at the ground in fear. This surprised Katara, she had never seen Zuko scared before, at least not since she almost killed him when he was caught in her net. "You really _are_ going to be the death of me!" He pointed at the ground and Katara found...an eel.

"Are you kidding me?..."

"I can't eat that!" He pointed at the eel.

_What a baby..._ "If you don't like smoked eel then I just won't bring any tomorrow."

He looked at her in shock. "Wait, _you_ eat that stuff?"

"Yeah. Well actually, 'I' don't eat it. Never really liked the taste. My dad and brother love eels though."

"I can't eat it...eel..." He put his hand on his stomach, still looking a little scared. "Doesn't agree with dragons..." He shuddered and an idea popped into Katara's mind.

"You don't say..." She grabbed the eel and and tucked it into her robe. Zuko looked disgusted.

"Yeah just keep that stuff away from me." He pulled out another seal jerky and chewed on it.

"I'd better get going." Katara moved the saddle and the fin to Zuko's cave and leaned them against the entrance. She grabbed her bag and started to climb back out of the cove. "I'll be back tomorrow."

"Whatever."

"Oh and by the way, thanks for telling me about the eel. That was a big help."

Zuko stopped eating and turned to look at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Gotta go!" She waved and crawled through the small entrance of the cove. "Bye!"

He kept looking at the hole even after she was long gone. He sighed a little. "...That girl just gets stranger and stranger."

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><p>Zukofan: Wonder what Katara's planning to do with that eel?...<p>

ZStar: I'll like they don't already know… You know we got a lot of reviews saying how we only just switch the characters

Zukofan: Yeah...too bad Idk what that means! ^_^

ZStar: Oh like how Katara is acting exactly like Hiccup and so on and so forth

Zukofan: Psh this ain't as bad as most crossover stories I've read

ZStar: That's what I'm saying... Like the last chapter wasn't completely original… And my idea no less

Zukofan: And trex989's. Least we got other stuff happening in future chapters

ZStar: So if you guys would just be patient a little longer we will give you some sweet original work

Zukofan: Yeah that would be greatly appreciated! ^_^


	10. Chapter 9

Sorry about the long wait :)

disclaimer - I own nothing!

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><p>Katara went to the arena in high spirits the following morning. She was nearly late but that didn't dampen her good mood. In her hand was her father's club and strapped to her waist was her waterskin though she had a feeling she wouldn't need either of them because safely tucked in her robe was the smoked eel Zuko was so afraid of. When she went home the day before she cut open the eel and rubbed its insides along the club but kept the remains. The eel's smell was disgusting but thankfully the body odor of over half of the recruits (thankfully not including Sokka) and the arena's smell covered it completely.<p>

"Today you're facing the tongue lasher." Bato paused when he heard groans from the recruits, including Katara. The Tongue Lasher was pretty hard to beat especially with its tongue that paralyzes its victims with even a gentle lick. The venom was only temporary but it was rare for the victims to live through it when the dragon would immediately feast on them. Hopefully today would be one of those rare times. "I'm pairing you up in twos for this. There will be a time outside the arena where you might face a Tongue Lasher alone but for now for everyone's safety you'll be in pairs."

Immediately Sokka and Katara paired up as did The Duke and Pipsqueak, leaving Jet and Hahn to reluctantly be partners. Bato opened the cage door and Katara slowly slipped her hand in her robe to get the eel. When the door was opened all the way the teens saw nothing but the darkness inside the cage and they couldn't hear anything. Katara was beginning to wonder if there was even a dragon inside the cage at all when something large and pink shot out of the cage and was jumping around the arena, not staying still long enough for any of the teens to attack when the dragon was close enough. Katara heard a yell and saw Hahn fall to the ground. When he didn't get back up she knew that he was hit by the tongue. Finally the dragon stopped and the teens had a better look at it; the pink dragon was a bit bigger than Zuko in his dragon form, its body long and flexible with light brown horns on its head. It's wing were light pink and translucent, they looked so delicate on such a fierce looking dragon. Its grey eyes glared at the teens, it's fangs bared in a snarl. The dragon crouched down and prowled around the arena like a tiger, its eyes never leaving them. Katara could tell that the dragon wasn't just looking at them, the dragon was looking for something, like a weak spot. The dragon stopped in front of Sokka and Katara and glared at the siblings. The waterbender could swear the dragon's gaze softened slightly when it was looking at Sokka. Suddenly it opened its mouth and a long pink tongue shot out of its mouth and before Sokka could dodge its tongue jabbed his chest and he fell to the ground.

"Sokka!" Katara uncorked her waterskin and bended out enough water to make a waterwhip and hit the dragon. It roared in pain when the whip hit its face and glared at Katara who glared back.

"Katara be careful!" Bato called out but Katara could barely hear him. Since her brother was now paralyzed the tongue lasher would see him as easy prey and eat him. She couldn't let that happen.

The dragon's tongue shot out of its mouth but Katara hit it with a waterwhip before it could hit her. The dragon screeched loudly and glared at her again. It hunched down and Katara knew it was about to pounce so to keep it from hurting the other recruits or Sokka she ran to the cage so that the dragon could follow her. She froze some water over her fingers, creating ice claws, and threw them at the dragon. One of the claws pierced the dragon's delicate wings and it roared louder than before.

"Katara stop!" Jet yelled. "You're just making it even madder!"

"Come on..." She muttered to the dragon. "Come get me..."

The dragon hunched its shoulders, fangs bared, growling, and its tail wagging, and ran towards Katara. Bato and Sokka told Katara to move out of the way but she quickly swung the club at the dragon. It jerked its head, and Katara missed, an easy dodge. But when the eel's scent reached into the dragon's nostrils it immediately stopped and looked around the arena, almost scared. Katara ran around the dragon so she was behind it, still swinging the club so the dragon could still smell the eel. The Tongue Lasher smelled the eel's innards on the club and started backing into its cage. Katara kept menacingly swinging her club around above her head, yelling at it. "Back! Back I say, foul beast!" She said in a commanding tone. The dragon shook its head in fear, still smelling the eel on the club, and turned tail and ran back inside its cage. Katara ran after it, pulling the eel out of her robe and tossing it into the cage. "Now you think about what you've done." She said to the cowering dragon as she closed the cell door and locked it. She turned around and saw everyone, including Bato, looking at her in shock.

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><p>"Hey Zuko. I brought you some eel free dinner!"<p>

"Lovely." Zuko muttered in a less than enthusiastic tone. Katara tossed him the bag of food which he immediately went through, feeling starved. As he chewed on some of the jerky she brought he noticed that she was in a more cheery mood than usual. "So what are you so happy about?" His eyes widened when he thought it was another crazy scheme of hers and he glared at her. "Whatever it is I'm not doing it."

"Relax, I'm not doing anything to you today." She sat down in front of him, that big smile still on her face. "I just went through a very succesful day of dragon training."

Zuko dropped the jerky he was holding and looked at her in surprise. "Wait I thought you didn't want to kill dragons!"

"I don't."

"Then what...?"

Katara snagged a jerky from the bag and took a bite. "Thanks to that little fact about the eel I was able to get that Tongue Lasher back into its pen without hurting it."

Zuko eyes widened when she said this. _Why did I tell her about the eel? She's still in dragon training! She could use this to hurt the others!_

Not noticing is reaction; Katara tapped her finger against her chin thoughtfully. "I just need to know other weaknesses..." She looked at Zuko expectantly.

He gave her a deadpanned look. "So...you want me to tell you a dragon's weaknesses?"

"Please?"

"Okay here's one...Piss off." He got to his feet and stalked off, leaving the bag of food with her. He wasn't feeling so hungry anymore.

"Oh come on Zuko!" Katara followed him, keeping her distance in case he lashed out on her. "The information you give me can really help a lot! And I'm not talking about myself, this will help the dragons!"

Zuko suddenly stopped, as did Katara. "Help the dragons?" He muttered. _No one can help us..._

"Don't you understand? In training the recruits hurt the dragons. I want to stop that." He turned around and glared. "If you really want to help, then why don't you just set them free?"

She lowered her head, feeling guilty. "I would but I don't want to get caught. How would I be able to explain to my dad all this? He won't believe me if I tell him about you."

"And how would you explain you knowing our weaknesses? Then what's to stop others from using them against the other dragons?"

"I didn't make it so obvious with that eel today," She assured him, "And I won't be with the other weaknesses. No one will even know. The guys were totally shocked that I was able to get that Tongue Lasher in its cage."

He crossed his arms, still glaring. "I still don't trust you completely."

She crossed her arms too and raised an eyebrow at him. "Fine, then I guess I'll just stand by and let the boys hurt the dragons from now on. Besides, why don't you trust me? I've given you food, healed you, I'm helping you get your flight back, and I've visited you every single day."

He turned away from her and paced, thinking this over. _She's right...if I don't tell her ways to take down a dragon without hurting them or killing them then the other recruits will hurt them...But what if she uses these weaknesses on _me_? Then again I can just not tell her that it won't work on me while I'm human..._ He sighed and marched up to Katara and grabbed her wrist in a vice like grip. She tensed up and this. "You betray me...and you'll be the next meal...GOT IT!"

"Got it." She pulled her wrist out of Zuko's grip and rubbed it. "You know, I think _you're_ more likely to become the death of _me_."

"At least I'd be trying." Ignoring the glare she was giving him he asked, "So...you want to take a dragon down without hurting it?" She nodded. "We have certain spots that if you touch it right we'll immediately fall asleep."

"Really? Where is this spot?"

"Depends on the dragon, but all are around our faces." He air drew a circle around his face and head area.

"Huh..." She went over to him and gently touched his neck and the side of his head. When he didn't fall asleep she looked at him annoyed.

_Damn it now I HAVE to tell her..._ "Okay, fine, it doesn't work unless I'm a dragon." He pushed her hands away. "Stop that."

"Then could you change into a dragon so that I can try it out?"

He let out a fake laugh. "Ha ha ha ha no."

"Fine. What are the other weaknesses?"

When Zuko didn't say anything Katara was worried that he was done telling her weaknesses or that he had changed his mind. Before she could ask he muttered, "we like firelillys..."

Katara stared at him, surprised. It was impossible to believe, a fierce man eating dragon likes _firelillies_? "Seriously?..."

"Seriously. They have a smooth, calming effect and," A goofy smile formed on his face. "Just make us feel _sooo_ relaxed..."

She laughed at the smile on his face, she couldn't help it. It was a nice change from the scowl he always had on his face. Zuko dropped the smile and looked at her with his eyebrow raised.

"What?"

She cleared her throat, trying to stop laughing. "Nothing. So what other weaknesses do dragons have?"

"Well If you find some childish ones they're attracted to shiny objects or light. I don't get it personally."

"I think that's kinda cute."

"Well that's enough. I think that should help you plenty."

"Yeah, it did." She grabbed her notebook and quickly wrote down what Zuko told her so she wouldn't forget. "Thanks Zuko. I really appreciate it."

The Dragon watched her scribble in her book. He looked down almost sheepishly and kicked a loose stone. Spirits know that he didn't like asking the human for anything, but he's wanted to get off the ground all day. He looked up and asked her.

"You want to go flying again? It feels pretty good to get off the ground." He then glared at her, annoyed. "But I don't want it to hurt getting back _on _the ground this time."

Katara rolled her eyes. "How about actually landing _on the ground _before you complain Zuko?" She went to his cave to grab the saddle and tail fin.

"I'm not the one who screwed up." He muttered before turning into a dragon.

She put the saddle on his back and he stood up so she could strap it. "Lay on me again and I'm giving you eel for breakfast." She laid underneath him and buckled the saddle. As she was getting back up she looked at his neck. _Couldn't hurt to test it if he was telling the truth..._ She reached out to touch his neck and face but he snapped at her, almost biting her fingers off. Taking the hint, she pulled away and went to his tail to strap the fake fin on. He kept it still as she did this. She got onto the saddle and held on tight. "Alright, let's do this."

Zuko spread his wings and lunged into the air. Holding onto the saddle as tight as she could, she looked over her shoulder at the fake fin to make sure it matched the real one. _I should really make a cheat sheet..._

* * *

><p>Zukofan: Can't wait for you guys to see Katara using this knowledge on the dragons! ^_^<p>

ZStar: And I can't wait until Katara and Zuko are better at flying

Zukofan: yeah and wait till you see a certain dragon smell a certain flower ^_^

ZStar: Oh man they are going to love that!

Zukofan: Oh yeah! ^_^ And they'll love the epic flying

ZStar: Yep and hopefully they don't have have to use lakes as the brakes… Holy crap that rhymed ^_^

Zukofan: YAAAAAY ^_^

ZStar: Read and review people!

Zukofan: DO IT!

Achmed: Or I KILL you!

ZStar: Holy crap what did you come from?

Achmed: From Jeff Dunham' suitcase you ass-*bleep*!

Zukofan: OMG I"M A FAN OF YOUR WORK! *grabs Achmed and hugs him*

Achmed: You bitch get off me or I kill you… Unless… You one of my virgins?

Zukofan: Nope! :P

Achmed: What!? You a virgin for another suicide bomber? Is he better looking than me?!

ZStar: Dude my butt looks better than you

Achmed: Then why don't you come and show me so I can shove some dynamite up there!

Zukofan: And I prefer someone who isn't so...boney...and pale...and actually has skin...

Achmed: Screw you bitch, You should've seen me when I did have skin I was soooooooooo sexy. In fact here's my theme song: I am too sexy for this bomb, too sexy for this bomb.

Zukofan: Not as sexy as Zuko ^_^

ZStar: ... Okay this is the most random thing in the world… Review if this made you laugh!

Zukofan: :P


	11. Chapter 10

If someone had told Katara a year ago that she was going to be riding a Comet-Eyed Dragon, she would have called them insane but now that she was actually doing it it was so unbelievable. After a lot of practicing and crash landings, Katara and Zuko were able to fly decently together. Pressing down on the foot pedal, she had Zuko fly in a large complete circle around the cove. Zuko suddenly took a turn and flew from the cove. Not expecting this, Katara quickly pressed the pedal again so that the fake fin would allign with the real one.

"Whoa! Where do you think you're going?"

She was answered with a snort from the dragon. Katara looked ahead and saw that he was heading toward the ocean. Getting an idea, she lowered herself and Zuko over the water until they were only a couple inches above it. She looked over at the water and saw her reflection looking back up at her. "Whoa..."

Zuko tilted his body slightly until the edge of his wing was skimming the water, lightly spraying himself and Katara with water. She laughed when she felt the drops on her face.

"This is amazing!"

If one were to look closely at the dragon, they would almost see a small smile forming on his face.

* * *

><p>The sun had started to set when Katara told Zuko that she had to go home. He groaned, not wanting to stop yet but turned to fly back to the cove. On the way they flew low over a field where many red flowers inhabited.<p>

_Fire lillies! I'll need those for training._ She used the pedal to steer him to the ground. He growled at her. "Relax, I'm not going to use them on you, I need them for the arena! It'll only take a second." He snorted, as if he didn't believe her, but allowed her to have him land in the field.

As soon as his feet touched the ground Katara felt herself suddenly fall off and land on the soft ground. Rubbing her head, she glared at Zuko. "What is your prob-" She stopped yelling at him when she saw what he was doing...

Zuko hadn't bucked her off...he only flopped onto the ground so he could roll around on the red flowers with the biggest, goofiest look on his face. _So he wasn't lying!_

Right away her glare dissapeared and she started to laugh. "You weren't kidding!"

He didn't seem to hear her, he just kept rolling around on the fire lillies like a cat would on catnip. He drunkenly got to his feet stumbled over to her, nudging her hand with his head and purring.

"Are you...are you seriously purring?" She giggled as she scratched Zuko on the head. "This is just too weird." He licked her on the cheek and nuzzled her again. "Well we better get going Zuko." She picked some fire lillies from the ground and held them up in front of Zuko to get him to follow her. "Come on you over grown cat." She found a stick on the ground and an idea formed in her head. She picked it up, tied the stems of the flowers to the end of the stick, climbed onto Zuko's back, and held the flowers in front of him. "If you want them you have to run!"

His smile widened and he bolted, his tongue was hanging out of his mouth like a dogmonkey as he ran. Katara kept a tight grip on the saddle and on the stick, not expecting him to run so fast even in his drugged state. Before long thanks to his speed they were back at the cove. Katara dropped the stick so that he would stop and regretted this immediately when she almost fell forward at the sudden stop.

"Good dragon..." She muttered as she slid off his back. Before she could get his saddle off he dropped and rolled on the ground again. She had to wait until he laid on his back and stayed still long enough for her to unbuckle the saddle. When she was down he sat up to nuzzle her again. "I've never seen you act so affectionate before..." She told him quietly. "Maybe I should bring you some flowers more often." She added jokingly. "Who would have thought they would have put a smile on your face?" She looked at the sunset and could see that it was almost completely gone. 'I'd better go before Sokka gets worried...'

Katara gave Zuko one last pat on the head. "I have to go. See you tomorrow."

Before she took more than two steps she found herself blocked by a whimpering red dragon. "What? Are you hungry or something? You still have food in your bag." She tried to go around him but he blocked her again. "Zuko, come on. I have to go home."

He laid down at her feet and gave her a begging look; this one was even more sad than the look he gave her when he was in her net. She rolled her eyes and groaned. "Fine. I'll stay."

The dragon jumped to his feet, smiling widely again, and pounced on her, knocking her over, causing her to cry out in surprise.

Groaning under the weight of his paws, Katara grumbled, "Suddenly I'm starting to miss your angst."

Zuko yawned and cuddled against her body before laying his head on the ground and closing his eyes. Snoring could be heard and Katara sighed in annoyance.

"Perfect...I hope Sokka doesn't go looking for me."

* * *

><p>The dragon groaned when the chirping from the birds woke him from his slumber. <em>Stupid rats with wings...wish I could just cook them<em>. Zuko stood up and stretched his legs, a loud yawn escaping his lips. He smacked his lips, feeling very thirsty. He took a step for the pond when the bottom of his foot made contact with something small. He looked down and found the still sleeping waterbender. His eyes widened and he jumped back. _I could have killed her_! A familiar scent reached his nose and he looked next to her to see a bundle of wilted Fire lillies. He snarled and scratched at the ground in anger. _How dare she...that filthy peasant_! He leaned over her body and roared loudly and angrily to wake up the waterbender.

Katara flinched and covered her ears, yelling in surprise. When Zuko was finished, she glared at him. "WHAT?!"

The dragon glared at the fire lillies and snorted at her.

She rolled her eyes and kept glaring at him. "I know what you're thinking but I swear I did not give you those flowers to make a fool out of you."

He snarled and spat fire at the pile and it turned to ashes. He growls at her, clearly not convinced.

"We went flying yesterday remember? We flew over a field where those flowers were going and you got goofy from them and landed there."

'Oh...that's right...' He glare softened and he lowered his head in shame.

"Hey, it's okay..." Katara smirked at him. "You want a belly rub?" He glared at her again and she laughed. She immediately stopped when she realized what time it was. "Oh no! I really hope I didn't miss today's training! I'll come back later with your food!" She ran over to the wall but then stopped, turned around, and went back to Zuko who was giving her a confused look. "Oh by the way, Zuko..." She raised a hand and before Zuko could stop her she touched a spot under his left ear, causing him to fall over instantly, asleep. "That was for roaring in my ear."

* * *

><p>Zukofan: Sorry it took so long to update...I feel super bad! ._.'<br>ZStar: Eh don't be. It was a cute chapter  
>Zukofan: we had fun writing this one :)<br>ZStar: Yeah :3 hope you fangirls enjoined Zuko acting like a drunken cat :P  
>Zukofan: I sure as hell did :P<br>ZStar: So what's the next chapter about?  
>Zukofan: Not tellin :P<br>ZStar: Whatever, read and review folks!  
>Zukofan: If you don't review, I won't update! *evil laugh*...jk :P<p> 


	12. Chapter 11

disclaimer: I own nothing!

* * *

><p>When Katara returned to the cove and saw that Zuko hadn't moved she was worried that she had accidentally killed him until she heard his snores. Sighing in relief, she sat down against a rock, pulling out her notes and her dragon book so she can review everything she learned so far from Zuko and dragon training. Since Zuko was in a bad mood no matter what, Katara decided that it would be best if she did not wake him up and just wait for him to wake up on his own. However, she was having a hard time concentrating because of said dragon's loud snoring. She gave him an annoyed glare which had no effect on the snoozing reptile. Instead, he just rolled onto his back, revealing his scaly belly; his clawed foot twitched.<p>

She quietly chuckled. _He almost looks like an overgrown dog..._ An idea appeared in her head and she put her books on the ground. She quietly snuck over to the slumbering dragon. When she was close enough she lifted her hand and laid it on his stomach, rubbing it gently. Zuko snorted, squirming a bit, but then grinned. She could hear him purring and did her best to keep her laughter in. She continued to rub Zuko's chest and stomach, even scratching at the scales. She felt him shaking and looked up to see his leg shaking fast like a dog. Katara couldn't hold it in anymore, it was just so hard to not laugh at that. Still rubbing, she started to laugh. Not too loud but not too quiet. The dragon snorted and stopped shaking his leg.

_Huh?_ She scratched his chest and stomach again but nothing happened. A rush of wind hit the side of her face and blew her hair to the side. _Oh crap..._ She slowly looked to her left where the wind came from and saw an angry dragon glaring back at her. He growled and snorted at her, blowing air in her face again.

"Uh..." She immediately took her hands off his stomach and stood up, backing away a bit. "Have a good nap?"

He flipped over so that he was on his feet and crawled to her, still glaring at her.

"I got curious okay?"

Zuko stood up on his hind legs and changed to his human form. He continued to glare at her. "I'M NOT! YOUR FREAKING! PET! SO KNOCK IT OFF!"

"I wouldn't have done it if your loud snoring wasn't distracting me from homework!" Katara smirked at him. "And don't be acting like you didn't enjoy it..."

Zuko rolled his eyes. "I can't held for stuff when I'm asleep...like when you doped me with firelillies."

"I didn't do that, you doped yourself!"

"...I still can't be held for that..."

"Anyway, I bet that even if you were awake you would be enjoying that."

"I didn't once I was awake. And yet you tried."

Katara paused; he had a point. "Whatever." She turned around and went back to her books and notes. "If you're gonna go back to sleep please try not to snore. It's a wonder how no one's found you yet, it's so loud..."

"Yeah if I could fly away all my problems would be over...oh WAIT!"

Katara glared at Zuko. "Would you rather I leave you here to starve and not help you fly?" _Because that sounds tempting right now_

Zuko raised his voice. "Well if it weren't you, I would be here in the FIRST PLACE!"

Katara picked up the dragon book and opened it, showing him a picture of a Royal Inferno burning a village. "If it weren't for you and your dragon buddies, I wouldn't have had to shoot you down!"

"WELL YOU HAVE IT BETTER THAN WE DO!"

She threw the book on the ground. "YOU SET FIRE TO MY HOME AND YOU KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE! HOW IS IT BETTER?!"

Zuko clenched his fists angrily and turned to walk away. "You humans are so...DENSE!"

Katara had enough; she was so tired of Zuko always treating her this way. She knelt down and grabbed her notes, stuffing them into her bag. "You have no idea what your kind has done to me," She mumbled. "Me personally."

"What, you lose your mother or something?"

Hot tears brimmed blue eyes as Katara closed the flap of her bag. She quickly blinked them away so that Zuko wouldn't see her crying. "Yes..."

Zuko gripped his fists so hard his arms shook. He began his walk to his cave. "...boo-ho."

Katara froze; did he really just...? Growling in anger, she bent some water out of the pond and waterwhipped the back of Zuko's head. The older boy flinched when the whip made contact and glared over his shoulder at her.

"Your kind destroyed my family and you mock me?!" She yelled. "How dare you?!"

Zuko turned around, still glaring at her. He casually shrugged. "How?...cause you humans are no different."

"What?!"

"What about those dragons you keep locked up...we fight to survive...IT'S A GAME TO YOU!"

Katara knew Zuko was right but she was too stubborn to just lose this argument. "We wouldn't be doing this if you dragons would just get your food somewhere else instead of stealing it from my village which, need I remind you, is struggling to stay alive!"

Zuko glared at the ground. "Well I guess we all are..."

"What do you mean?"

"...Nothing..."

She threw her bag over her shoulder and went to the rocky wall. "Well now you're going to get what you want; I'm leaving."

"FINE!"

"And I'm never coming back!"

To Katara's surprise he didn't lash out or yell out in rage or firebended at her. Instead he was calm, almost shocked. "So you'll let me starve?"

She didn't look at him, she just started to climb up the rocky wall. "You really think I'm going to help you anymore? You always blow up at me and you insulted my mother's death!"

"Oh you think your the only one with problems?"

"You don't need to remind me, I hear you complaining about not being able to fly every day!" She rubbed her eyes again to wipe away the tears.

Zuko got into his cave and laid down on the earth, leaning his back against the cave wall. "Not just that you selfish human..." He muttered. He looked at the part of the wall she had just climbed and something on the ground caught his eye.

* * *

><p>Katara was still kicking herself when she came back to the cove at sunset. It wasn't until after she got home that she saw that she had left her dragon book behind. Being as quietly as she could, she climbed down the cove and walked around to look for her book.<p>

"Looking for something?"

She jumped about a foot in the air and looked up to see Zuko sitting at the top of his cave. She was about to retort when she saw that he was holding something.

"My book." She answered, holding up her hands so he could toss it down.

He smirked. "Oh you want this back?" He dangled the book with his fingers.

She glared at him. "Yes!"

"Okay, how about...no." He jumped off his perch and landed in front of her, crouching with his hand on the ground to keep his balance before standing up and looking down at her, still smirking.

"Uh, how about yes!" She tried to snatch the book out of his hands but he took a couple steps back.

"Whoa no...who says I'm giving it back?"

"Give it back dragon!" Zuko's eyes narrowed when Katara called him that.

_Spirits, how I want to just burn her..._ He thought. ..._But as much as I hate to admit it...I need her in order to survive._ "I need it!"

"Oh you do? You're not helping me anymore...why should I?"

Katara's glare hardened. "Why should 'I' help 'you', you stupid dragon? I could be helping the dragons in the ring with that book!"

Zuko shrugged. "But that doesn't help me. Maybe I'll throw it off a cliff...or shred it to bits." He curled his fingers against the cover of the book like he was going to claw at it. "Or..." He put his hand under it and lit a small flame. "Just _burn_ it!" He smirked again, enjoying the fact that he was taunting the water bender.

"No!" She immediately opened her water skin in case he did burn it. "Don't do anything to it, just give it back..."

Zuko continued to smirk, he didn't even put out his flames. "Persuade me..."

Katara kept glaring at the hybrid. She knew that she could just get a new copy or borrow Sokka's book but a part of her kept bugging her; she knew she couldn't just leave him here to starve...And there was no way he could just climb out and just go to her village in human form for three reasons. Her village barely had enough food to feed the population, the villagers weren't exactly fans firebenders mainly because of the legends of how dragons taught the first firebenders and many believed that it was so the firebenders could offer other benders and non benders as the dragons' sacrifices. And there was the fact that Zuko's scar was exactly like the marking of his dragon form so that could raise questions and suspicions.

"...Alright fine I'll keep bringing you food..."

"Good." He clenched his fist, dispelling the flames. "Here." He held it out and she snatched it back without giving so much as a "thanks". She opened the book and flipped through all the pages to make sure it wasn't vandalized in any way. When she saw that it was in the same condition from when she left it, she closed it and turned to leave.

"See you tomorrow dragon."

"Wait..."

She stopped and closed her eyes, praying for patience. "What is it now?"

"Is...is my scar really that big?" He pressed his fingers against his comet shaped scar and closed his eyes when he felt the rough skin.

She turned around so she could look at him better. She gave him a confused look. "What?"

"I can't read but I can look at pictures..." He reached into his vest and pulled out a paper. It was one of the drawings she had done of him in his dragon form. "I found it in your book. For someone who hates dragons, why are you so interested in me?"

"I don't know... For someone who hates humans, why do you let me live? Even when I annoy you or cause your injuries?"

Zuko rolled his eyes and gave her a blank look. "You bring me food."

"Oh...right..." She snatched the paper out of Zuko's hand and turned to leave again. "How stupid of me to forget..."

"See you tomorrow."

Katara, who had started climbing the rocky wall, paused. Unless she was mistaken, it almost sounded like he was _trying_ to sound friendly.

"Bye."

* * *

><p>Zukofan: Yay! We finally updated<p>

Zstar: Sorry it took so long. It's mostly my fault ^_^'

Zukofan: Awe, it was my fault too, sweetie

Zstar: By the way we just had our one year dating anniversary and I still love this girl more than Aang loves Katara

Zukofan: Awe *blush We're more lovey dovey than Aang and Katara too

Zstar: Now now :P Not in front of the fans

Zukofan: Hey, it's not like they're reading this anyway :P

Zstar: I guess we'll let the reviews decide that. R&R!

Zukofan: If we get any hate mail Zstar and I WILL act so disgustingly lovey dovey that you'll wanna puke ^_^


	13. Chapter 12

disclaimer: I own nothing!

* * *

><p>Katara clutched the stems of the fire lilies residing in her pocket tightly. Today they were facing Terra Club again, the second toughest dragon the teens would have to face in the arena. And this time Katara was ready to face it.<p>

Bato unlocked its door and just like last time the Terra Club burst out of its cage, roaring in anger. It pawed at the ground like a komodo rhino before running towards Hahn. Hahn swung his cub at the dragon but missed it completely. The terra club collided with him, throwing him against the arena wall. He crumpled on the floor and Katara could swear she could see a little smirk on the corner of the terra club's mouth. It thumped its tail hard against the ground, shaking the arena like a little earthquake; the kids fell down from the intense shaking. The dragon went to The Duke, the nearest child, but before it could clamp its sharp fangs around the small boy, a water whip hit its eye. It closed its eyes tightly, roaring in pain. It turned its attention to Katara and ran to her at full speed, smoke spiraling out of its mouth and nostrils. When it was close enough Katara raised her hand but she wasn't clutching a weapon.

"KATARA!" Sokka grabbed his club and ran over to the dragon with a war cry but then suddenly stopped.

In front of Katara on its back with what looked like a goofy grin on its face and its tongue hanging out was the terra club. Katara was still standing, unscathed, but her hand was lowered. Though he couldn't see it, in her tightly clutched hand were the leaves and petals of a fire lily she had picked from the cove.

"How did you do that?" Jet asked. He, just like the other boys (even Bato), had a look of shock on his face.

Katara slipped the remains of the fire lily in her pocket and shrugged. There was an innocent smile on her face. "Well you know..." She looked to Bato. "So I'm guessing we're done today right?" Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed her bag and hurried out of the arena. "See you all tomorrow!"

* * *

><p>"Drrrrrrr-rrrrraaaaaaaa"<p>

"No no, an 'ah' sound. 'Aaaaaah.' "

After a few days of convincing (and nagging), Zuko agreed to let Katara teach him how to read. They had already gone over the alphabet several times and were now going to try the books. Unfortunately, Zuko insisted on learning to read the book of dragons first so that he can learn about the dragons he's never met or heard of. The reason this is unfortunate is because the ending sentence for each dragon description is the same one...

"Drrraaaaah-gh...on...oh 'dragon'."

Katara gave Zuko an encouraging smile. "That's right."

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Oh this is useless...I sound like I'm high on lilies trying to say this stuff..."

"Reading isn't useless." Katara said calmly. This phrase has been repeated her whole life when there was someone scoffing at her interest in books. "It's actually one of the most useful things for humans that's used everyday. You just need to keep trying."

"Well I'm _not_ human, I'm a dragon. We spend most of our time hunting."

"Would you rather we stop and you stay here bored out of your mind while I'm in training? Because I doubt there's much to hunt in this giant ditch."

Zuko gave her a smirk. She gave him a confused look in return.

"What?"

"There is one thing I can hunt down here. Walks on two legs, wears blue, and smells like seaweed."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh very funny...I really smell like seaweed?" She said self-conscionably sniffing her arm.

"To a dragon you do." The half-dragon said tapping his nose with the same smirk. "Even as a human I still have my sense of smell."

"Oh that's neat." She said with great interest and a smile.

He chuckled "Well I'm interested in this little phrase that seems pop up at the end of every page." He held up the book and pointed at the dreaded sentence; Kill on sight.

Katara blushed when she saw those words and felt very uncomfortable. How was she going to explain this to Zuko?

Zuko looked at the sentence again and tried to read it. "K-eeeeeeeeeeell. 'Kill.' 'Kill on...' What does this 'g-h' sound like?"

"That is silent." Katara said timidly.

"Kill on...sit? what does THAT mean?" Zuko noticed her discomfort. "What?..."

Katara tried to tug the book out of Zuko's hands. "Look let's not worry about that one-"

He pulled the book away from her, eyeing her suspiciously. "Spill."

Katara knew that there was no easy way to change the subject so she decided to just tell him and hope he doesn't freak out.

"That last word is 'sight'."

Zuko looked at her for a moment and then looked at the sentence. She could see his lips mouth "kill on..." He then flipped through the pages of the book and saw that same sentence over and over again. He reached the last page and slowly closed the book. Without looking at her he spoke in a sarcastic tone. "Maybe we should just put bull-eyes on our backs and make it easier for you humans..."

"Well maybe if you guys didn't attack us first then we wouldn't have to 'kill on sight'. It's either kill or be killed for us."

"Well I'll give you that. But you humans train your whole lives to fight us. We just do it on instinct, not as a 'goal'" Zuko tossed the book on the ground. He reached into Katara's bag and pulled out some seal jerky she brought him. She could hear him mumble in between bites. "It's getting really hard to like you..."

"...What did you say?"

Zuko looked at Katara, his eye slightly wide. "What?"

"What you just said, what was that?"

"I said, you humans train you're whole lives to fight us-"

"After that..."

After some thought, his eyes widened when he realized what she was talking about. He cleared his throat and looked away. "No, nothing after that."

A smirk formed on Katara's face. "No...You said you like me!"

"No I didn't." A faint blush appeared on the pale firebender's cheeks. This was the first time Katara had ever seen Zuko blush.

"If you didn't then why are you blushing?"

"Okay, fine! I said that. But I don't _like_ you. I just hate you a lot less than other humans."

"You know, I think I feel the same way about you..."

"Oh, haha..."

Katara and Zuko sighed together. She took the book back from him. "Wanna keep going?"

"Whatever..."

* * *

><p>Zukofan: Yay! I finally put up the new chapt!<p>

Zstar: Yay! sorry I took forever to betaread it

Zukofan: And I'm sorry I took forever to write it

Zstar: R&R!


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